Wimbledon is a historic… and special tournament. In recent years, the tournament has lost some of its quirks, such as changing the seed order or not playing on the Sunday of the first week, but it has kept others that many people don’t understand.
And this year he will keep his questionable schedule, starting at 1:30 PM UK time (2:30 PM CEST) on Center Courtdespite the problems it has caused in recent years.
The executive president of the tournament, Sally Bolton, confirmed this Thursday, in a meeting with journalists at the All England Club, that the schedule of previous years will not be changed and the action will start at 1:30 pm :30 pm Spanish peninsula ) in the middle court and at 1:00 pm on court 1 (2:00 pm Spanish peninsular time), the only two with a roof in the venue.
Wimbledon has scheduled three matches at the center each day and depending on the day there may be two men’s matches in the best of five sets.. This, for example in 2023, means that there is no time to finish the day, due to the length of the matches, and matches such as Novak Djokovic against Hubert Hurkacz and Andy Murray against Stefanos Tsitsipas have to be moved to the next day. , with consequent congestion the next day.
“We have reviewed it and we believe it is the best decision. We trust that it will save you timeBolton said.
The decision to start at 1:30 pm, despite the fact that the outdoor courts start two and a half hours earlier, was made to please the television networks, more specifically the BBC.which owns the rights in the United Kingdom, which has even managed to leave twenty minutes of space between matches – another of Wimbledon’s controversial decisions – and for VIPs, who prefer to enter the court after eat
“Wimbledon makes its decisions“Murray commented in 2023. “You just don’t consider what’s best for the players. Obviously there are other things; television, VIP… They take all those things into account to make the best decision,” added the Scot.
Not starting sooner adds to the problem already Wimbledon is the only Grand Slam with a curfew, at 11:00 pm local time (-1 GMT), so as not to disturb the neighbors.
In this Thursday’s meeting, Wimbledon also confirmed a £50m prize pool (59 million euros), 11.9% more than last year.
Last year, the individual tournament winners, Carlos Alcaraz and Marketa Vondrousova pocketed 2.7 million eurosso, if they repeat this course, they will take about 400,000 euros more.
The prize for players fighting in the first round has also been increased and these will take 60,000 pounds (71,000 euros), compared to 55,000 pounds from last year.
In addition, there will be a tribute to Andy Murray in what will surely be his final participation in a tournament he has won twice (2013 and 2016), becoming the first Briton to do so since Fred Perry in 1936.
The organization also announced Chris Evert, for the 50th anniversary of his first Wimbledon, Conchita Martínez, in commemoration of the 30th anniversary of his Wimbledon victory, Andre Agassi, winner in 1992, and Ken Rosewall, four that time finalist, will visit. the All England Club during the event.
Source: La Verdad
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