WIMBLEDON STARS FORCED TO STOP PLAYING AND MOVE COURTS AT CRUCIAL MOMENT

Caroline Wozniacki and Leylah Fernandez were forced to stop their match in the middle of a crucial deciding set so they could switch courts at Wimbledon on Thursday night.

Former world No. 1 Wozniacki spent almost half an hour asking the umpire to suspend the contest for darkness before her wishes were finally answered shortly before 9pm.

But instead of postponing the rest of the match to the following day, Wozniacki and Fernandez were suddenly bumped up from Court 12 to Court 1.

They walked out under the roof and the lights almost an hour later after receiving a last-minute upgrade, as a few hundred lucky fans learned of the news and got to watch the former Australian Open champion complete her match against the 30th seed.

It was 3-3 in the third set when they finally resumed play after a rare mid-match change in court. And Wozniacki made sure that they didn't hit curfew as she saved two match points before serving out a 6-3 2-6 7-5 win shortly after 10pm.

The 33-year-old thought it was the right call to stop play and change venues so they could complete the match on the same day. She later said: "I wanted to play today.

"I wanted to finish the match, win or lose. I wanted to get it done today because it's supposed to be maybe raining tomorrow. I just thought it was very hard to see outside. I didn't know there was a possibility to play on Court 1 or Centre, but when the opportunity was there, I mean, I thought it was great."

And Wozniacki was right, the beginning of day five was a washout with no play starting on time on the outside courts. The wildcard now finds herself into the third round in her first appearance at Wimbledon since returning from retirement.

Twelve months ago, she entered the invitational doubles draw to get some matches under her belt before officially un-retiring a month later at the Canadian and Cincinnati WTA 1000 events. She then entered the US Open and stormed into the second week.

Wozniacki now faces No. 4 seed and former champion Elena Rybakina as she seeks another round-of-16 result in this second coming of her career. In a high-profile meeting of two Grand Slam winners, their match will likely be played on one of the main show courts from start to finish instead of facing a late switch.

2024-07-05T11:59:01Z dg43tfdfdgfd