Rafael Nadal yesterday led a disgruntled chorus of top players in criticising the tournament's decision not to schedule play on the middle Sunday despite the foul weather which has blighted this year's championships.
The middle Sunday of Wimbledon is traditionally a day off but it has seen play on three occasions - 1991, 1997 and 2004 - when persistent rain left a backlog of matches. This time the tournament referee, Andrew Jarrett, turned down the chance of Sunday play and Nadal, whose third-round match against Robin Soderling was stretched over five days by rain delays, would like to know why.
"I didn't understand why we didn't play on Sunday when the weather was much better than on Monday and Tuesday," said the No2 seed, who eventually completed a five-set win over Soderling yesterday. "Also I didn't understand why they cancelled the play so early on Tuesday when there was one hour's sunshine later. That's very tough for the players."
Nadal's assertion that "they don't think very much about the players here maybe" was more incendiary than he meant it to be. His grasp of English is laudable but not infallible. Later he explained in Spanish that he knew it was impossible to please everybody all of the time. None the less his infatuation with Wimbledon has become strained. Did he still love it? "After the tournament, I don't know. Right now, a little bit less than when I came."
Novak Djokovic, the world No5, called it a "bad decision" not to play on Sunday. "They knew the forecast for this week is going to be bad, is going to be a lot of rain," he said. "It was, on the end of last week, a lot of rain. I didn't understand why they didn't have any play on Sunday. Plus Sunday was a very nice day so they would finish all the matches. So I can blame them for that situation."
Any decision to play on Sunday would have had to been made by mid-afternoon on Saturday at the latest in order to allow sufficient time for police and local authorities - as well as All England Club - to make the necessary security arrangements.
Play on the middle Sunday was not considered necessary because at the time the possibility was discussed the tournament was not far enough behind schedule. The club had also been given a forecast from the Met Office which suggested Sunday might be as rainy as Saturday, when only 90 minutes of play were completed. "Hindsight is a wonderful thing," said a spokesman for the All England Club yesterday.
Irrespective of the decision not to play, organisers now have a race to get the tournament finished by Sunday. Jarrett admitted on Tuesday that the situation was "ghastly" and, although a largely dry day yesterday and measures such as truncated scoring in junior matches have eased the scheduling crisis somewhat, there is every chance of the tournament going into Monday. To make matters worse for Jarrett, the weekend forecast is gloomy.
John McEnroe had little sympathy. "They've put themselves in this situation. There's been some bungled scheduling," he said. "I can't see how they're going to get it finished by Sunday."