London: Men’s singles title contenders, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic also joined the chorus of complaints regarding the Wimbledon courts here.
While Federer slipped once on Centre Court during his match against Mischa Zverev which he won 7-6(7-3) 6-4, 6-4, Novak Djokovic stated that the ball had bounced differently in his battle with Ernst Gulbis.
Federer followed Djokovic on Centre Court and described it as ‘a tad slippery’ after losing his footing once, while Zverev also slipped and tumbled a couple of times.
“But I didn’t feel like it was unsafe,” said Federer, who has won seven of his record 18 Major titles at Wimbledon.
“Maybe you don’t want players to feel that way, because the moment you become scared of moving properly, it’s really difficult to play, I must admit. The last thing we want to see is horrible injuries,” added the Swiss.
The two past champions are wondering what sort of work can be done on the middle Sunday, when there is no competition, so the court conditions improve when action resumes with all 16 fourth-round singles matches scheduled for Monday.
“The first two matches I didn’t see any significant difference. But I was hearing a lot of comments from the other players. They were complaining. Especially on the outside courts,” Djokovic said after his match against Gulbis.
“Today (Saturday), I could see there is a difference in grass, in (the) turf itself. It was a bit softer, I would say, especially around a couple of feet inside and outside, around the baseline area,” the Serb added.
