JAMIE Murray was too polite to say it so his mixed doubles partner Bethanie Mattek Sands had a pop at the All England Club schedulers on his behalf. Requiring to be called back mid-match for the second time this Wimbledon as his match couldn’t be finished, he was on court for a grand total of seven minutes yesterday, just long enough to mis-time a few early volleys and watch his US partner serve a few double faults before his tournament was over, courtesy of this 4-6, 6-3, 3-6 defeat to No 3 seeds Mate Pavic of Croatia and Gabriela Dabrowski of Canada.
It was an infuriating end to things for the 33-year-old Scot, not least because the match could and should have been played to a conclusion on Monday. Originally scheduled for not before 5.30pm on Court No 12, they saw the promise of a slot on Centre Court – where you can play on under the lights till 11pm – withdrawn before being forced to go on in what was already bad light at 6.59pm on Court No 18. With Roger Federer making light work of Italy’s Matteo Berretini, the score stood at 1-1 when Federer claimed his victory on Centre Court just ten minutes later.
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“They initially said if the match went fast on Centre we would go on there, but Roger won in one hour 14 minutes,” said Mattek-Sands. “I don’t know what is faster than that …. a withdrawal?? Yeah, so just don’t offer it. That was why we were waiting, otherwise we would have gone on Court No 18 and played the match in full.”
All England Club member or not, the truth is that there probably isn’t another person at this championships this fortnight who finds himself moved around the schedule more than the Scot, whose matches are always guaranteed to pull early evening crowds.
“A bit yeah, of course that’s often why I put late on in the schedule and then maybe you get moved. For me personally I’m waiting around all day to play. They say TBA and not before 5.30 but that can be 7.30 or whatever. Me personally I’d rather play first, second, third match and know that I’m going to get on, know where I’m going to be playing. I understand why this happens but from my point of view and my preparations it’s not ideal.
“I don’t think it’s something they needed to apologise for but I think they just could have been a bit more proactive about the whole thing because we could have gone on 45mins before we did and we would have finished the match,” said the 33-year-old. “
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