Djokovic Postponed, Twitter Fumes
There was quite a bit of angst regarding the scheduling of Novak Djokovic’s round of 16 match with Adrian Mannarino on Manic Monday at Wimbledon. As Rafael Nadal and Gilles Muller’s epic stretched out beyond the three-hour mark it was rapidly becoming apparent that Djokovic and Mannarino were not going to be able to finish their match if they went on—as intended—to Court 1 after Nadal finished.When Roger Federer and Grigor Dimitrov finished up promptly on Centre Court, leaving the court—and it’s revered grass—resting for the evening, frustration really started to build. Where was Djokovic? No.2 Court, also vacated not too long after 7 PM when Milos Raonic finished his five-set victory over Alexander Zverev, was free.And yet, due to safety concerns, and based on discussions with Djokovic and his team (Mannarino we suspect as well), Wimbledon elected to postpone Djokovic’s match until Tuesday morning.Here is the tournament’s statement on the matter:
Wimbledon issue statement on decision to cancel Novak Djokovic vs Adrian Mannarino. pic.twitter.com/ANYxv377pA
— Stuart Fraser (@stu_fraser) July 10, 2017
That response wasn’t good enough for Twitter:
NO MORE PLAY. Djokovic – Mannarino postponed. Well done, Wimbledon. #Not
— Carole Bouchard (@carole_bouchard) July 10, 2017
Wimbledon's disinclination to move players from their assigned court is going to bite them tonight….cant really move ND to Centre now
— Jon Wertheim (@jon_wertheim) July 10, 2017
Also… why has the Djokovic/Mannarino match not been moved?!
— Laura Robson (@laurarobson5) July 10, 2017
Hmmm. Change of plans again @Wimbledon ? 🤔
— Jelena Djokovic (@JelenaRisticNDF) July 10, 2017
What it means is that Djokovic will now have to play on back-to-back days to reach the semis. What we don’t know is what type of input Djokovic had on the decision. Ros Satar of Britwatch Sports pointed out to us that Djokovic may himself have asked to be put on Centre Court on Tuesday because once a player has started on a specific court he must finish his match on that court. With rain expected on Tuesday, maybe the prudent decision was to get a good night’s rest and play with the security of the Centre Court roof on Tuesday.Conspiracy theorists are no doubt congregating, but Wimbledon may have arrived at the most prudent situation possible. We’ll look forward to hearing Djokovic’s take on the matter after his match with Mannarino today. ]]>
