Protests and rain make major mess
WIMBLEDON, England — The developments at Wimbledon on Wednesday included Novak Djokovic joining Roger Federer and Serena Williams as the only players in tennis history to win 350 Grand Slam matches; a runner-up two years ago, Karolina Pliskova, exiting in the first round against a qualifier; a player seeded No. 8, Maria Sakkari, taking the opening set 6-0 but managing to lose.
Ho-hum. Those turned out to be not the most unusual happenings around the All England Club on Day 3 of this tournament.
That’s because so much of the buzz around the place concerned protests and, yes, rain.
Three environmental activists were arrested for interrupting matches by making their way onto court to toss orange confetti — hidden in boxes for 1,000-piece Centre Court puzzles sold at the tournament merchandise shops — and attract attention to an anti-oil organization.
“We’ve had enough disruptions with the weather,” four-time Wimbledon semifinalist Tim Henman, a member of the board at the All England Club, said on the BBC broadcast, “but to get a disruption like that is disappointing.”
The showers that were so problematic Tuesday returned Wednesday, limiting the hours available for competition and making everyone wait and wait and wait.
“Today was a bit weird in the beginning, because there was supposed to be no rain, then it started raining,” said No. 6 Holger Rune, who eliminated British wild-card entry George Loffhagen 7-6 (4), 6-3, 6-2 in a first-round match that was postponed from Tuesday.
“It was a little bit frustrating at the end.”
Consider: While four players who got to play at the two arenas with retractable roofs already are into the third round, including Djokovic and the No. 1 woman, Iga Swiatek, there remain 14 entrants who have yet to contest a single point in the first round.
That latter group includes 2019 U.S. Open champion Bianca Andreescu, 2020 U.S. Open runner-up Alexander Zverev and Karolina Muchova, who lost to Swiatek in last month’s French Open final.
“For sure, it’s really comfortable,” Swiatek said after beating Sara Sorribes Tormo 6-2, 6-0 at a dry Centre Court. Djokovic beat Jordan Thompson 6-3, 7-6 (4), 7-5.
Taylor Fritz’s first-round match against Yannick Hanfmann of Germany was suspended midway through the fifth set on Monday and never resumed Tuesday. So the Southland native did a lot of stewing until he finally was able to get back on No. 2 Court to wrap up his 6-4, 2-6, 6-4, 7-5, 6-3 triumph.
Tenth-seeded Frances Tiafoe and Wu Yibing originally were due to play Tuesday but began Wednesday. Tiafoe won 7-6 (4), 6-3, 6-4.
One of the highlights of Tuesday’s schedule — 2020 U.S. Open champion Dominic Thiem versus two-time major finalist Stefanos Tsitsipas — got through just 11⁄2 sets and so turned into one of the highlights Wednesday. The match went five sets and lasted nearly four hours before Tsitsipas delivered one last forehand winner for a 3-6, 7-6 (1), 6-2, 6-7 (5), 7-6 (10-8) win.