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Wimbledon under fire for Centre Court roof blunders

Ground staff cleans the covers on centre court during the second round match between Spain's Rafael Nadal and Lithuania's Ricardas Berankis - REUTERS/Toby Melville
Ground staff cleans the covers on centre court during the second round match between Spain's Rafael Nadal and Lithuania's Ricardas Berankis - REUTERS/Toby Melville

Wimbledon is facing criticism over Centre Court roof bungles, having kept it closed during dry weather for Katie Boulter's win but then kept it open during rain on Rafael Nadal's match.

Nadal's fourth set against Ricardas Berankis was heavily disrupted as staff were forced to sweep the grass dry as the roof eventually came on, causing a total 50-minute delay.

The All England Club had no immediate explanation for the decisions although organisers are always led minute-to-minute by weather forecasts. The decision to keep the roof closed earlier had puzzled Briton Boulter, who produced the biggest win of her career by upsetting Wimbledon finalist Karolina Pliskova to reach the third round of a grand slam for the first time.

The roof was kept closed for the match despite conditions being dry and play continuing on the outdoor courts. This was the second year in a row playing on Centre for Boulter after her narrow loss to semi-finalist Aryna Sabalenka at the same stage last year.

round staff cleans centre court during the second round match between Spain's Rafael Nadal and Lithuania's Ricardas Berankis - REUTERS/Paul Childs
round staff cleans centre court during the second round match between Spain's Rafael Nadal and Lithuania's Ricardas Berankis - REUTERS/Paul Childs

The indoor conditions initially appeared to suit Pliskova, and she began to find rhythm on her serve and groundstrokes, reeling off five games in a row. However, after defeats for Emma Raducanu and Andy Murray on Wednesday, Boulter eventually thrilled the home crowd by coming from a set down to win 3-6 7-6 (4) 6-4.

When asked about the closed roof, Boulter said afterwards: "It was definitely a change. I didn't know until maybe five minutes before I went on the court. It was definitely relevant. It was nice to get acquainted in my first match under the roof. Never seen it before, never played underneath it.

"It took a few minutes to get used to, for sure. The first few service games I think from maybe both of us were a little bit dodgy. I was just getting used to my ball toss.

"It was nice to play a different match. Different conditions. Obviously the courts are different than last week, they're a lot slower. But, yeah, it was a little bit of a surprise for me because I didn't really know about the weather either. Obviously it's not my job to make that call. Ultimately it's the people that put the tournament on."

As well as the lengthy rain delay for Nadal, BBC viewers faced further frustrations as footage switched back to his fixture at the critical point that Briton Jack Draper went one set up against Alex de Minaur.