WIMBLEDON, England — Marin Cilic wasn’t proud of the scheduling at Wimbledon on Monday after dropping 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 Court docket the place his match was performed was nonetheless fairly delicate 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 Court docket and No. 1 Court docket 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 talk about the situations. OK, I misplaced and all the things. 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 towards Jessica Bouzas Maneiro adopted Cobolli and Cilic on No. 2 Court docket, whereas the opposite six matches had been performed on Centre Court docket and No. 1 Court docket.
“It is raining in a single day, and the court docket was fairly delicate,” Cilic stated. “It was actually troublesome to play on. You simply push the ball in the midst of the court docket, and the ball simply stays tremendous low. It was only a battle.”
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 taking part in in lower-level Challenger Tour occasions this yr to spice up his rating. He needed to make it via 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 angle and optimistic outcomes out of the event,” he stated. “I discovered nice type, performed some improbable tennis. Even in the present day was fairly shut.”
