WIMBLEDON CURFEW: WHY DO PLAYERS HAVE TO LEAVE THE COURT AT 11PM?

The 2024 Wimbledon Championships gets underway today, but no matter how the famous fortnight pans out this year matches won't be going long into the night. Regardless of rain delays or a potential backlog of matches, a strict 11pm curfew will again be in place at SW19.

The regulation has been in place since 2009, the same year when a roof was built on Centre Court.

But despite that development proving significant in allowing matches to continue under lights, the All England Tennis Club had already agreed to be bound by the curfew.

When considering whether to grant planning permission for the roof, Merton Council put the provision in place before giving the green light. They cited the need to protect local residents from late night disturbances, given the potential for thousands of fans to be during out of the venue in the early hours of the morning.

Organisers have since stated: "The 11pm curfew is a Planning Condition applied to balance the consideration of the local residents with the scale of an international tennis event that takes place in a residential area. The challenge of transport connectivity and getting visitors home safely is also a key consideration."

It means players have been regularly left frustrated in the past 15 years, having been forced to leave the court despite their matches being on a knife edge. There was a close shave in 2023, with Laslo Djere defeating Maxime Cressy, and the curfew, by finishing at 10:58pm.

And the rule was famously broke in 2018, when Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal took the the court at 8pm after Kevin Anderson famously needed six hours and 36 minutes to beat John Isner. The two icons were in a third set tie-break when 11pm struck, with officials refusing to call time until the Serbian took it at 11.02pm.

Wimbledon remains the only Grand Slam event to impose a curfew. Matches at the Australian, French, and US Open can go on until the early hours of the following morning, with British icon Andy Murray's latest-ever finish coming in Melbourne in 2023.

It was 4.05am when Murray hit his winning shot to secure his comeback win over Thanasi Kokkinakis. The pair had not even taken to the court until 10.20pm the previous night.

And at this year's French Open, Coco Gauff was one star to call for an end to matches being allowed to go way beyond midnight. "People think finishing at 3am, 'Oh, you're done,'" Gauff said.

"But you play till 3am, and then you have press, and then you have to shower, eat, and then do treatment. So then you're not going to bed until five at the earliest, maybe six or even seven."

2024-07-01T05:57:31Z dg43tfdfdgfd