WIMBLEDON, England — Marin Cilic wasn’t proud of the scheduling at Wimbledon on Monday after shedding to Flavio Cobolli in a fourth-round match that began as organized at 11 a.m. native time.
The 36-year-old Cilic stated he needed to heat up indoors because the Wimbledon follow courts do not open till 9:30 a.m. and that the No. 2 Courtroom the place his match was performed was nonetheless fairly gentle after it rained in a single day.
Play on the skin courts at Wimbledon is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. all through the fortnight, whereas matches on Centre Courtroom and No. 1 Courtroom start not less than two hours later.
However Cilic questioned whether or not event organizers should not put all singles matches later within the day within the fourth spherical.
“I do not like to discuss the circumstances. OK, I misplaced and the whole lot. I’ve to simply accept it,” Cilic stated. “However I really feel bitter as a result of why is there a have to play at 11?”
The Cobolli-Cilic assembly was the one one of many eight singles matches performed Monday that had such an early begin time.
Liudmila Samsonova’s match in opposition to Jessica Bouzas Maneiro adopted Cobolli and Cilic on No. 2 Courtroom, whereas the opposite six matches have been performed on Centre Courtroom and No. 1 Courtroom.
“It is raining in a single day, and the courtroom was fairly gentle,” Cilic stated. “It was actually troublesome to play on. You simply push the ball in the midst of the courtroom, and the ball simply stays tremendous low. It was only a wrestle.”
He misplaced 6-4, 6-4, 6-7 (4), 7-6 (3). Nonetheless, it was a comparatively profitable Wimbledon for Cilic, the 2014 US Open champion who was runner-up on the All England Membership in 2017.
Cilic is coming again to top-level tennis after having two knee operations after which enjoying in lower-level Challenger Tour occasions this yr to spice up his rating. He needed to make it by qualifying rounds simply to get into the bracket on the French Open, the place he misplaced within the first spherical.
“I’ve nice encouragement, happiness, optimistic perspective and optimistic outcomes out of the event,” he stated. “I discovered nice type, performed some improbable tennis. Even right this moment was fairly shut.”