Wimbledon curfew forces players to leave the court at 11pm or break rules

Wimbledon could see some late-night finishes this week after rain delays wreaked havoc on the schedule – with first-round matches carrying over into Thursday. But the tournament must ensure that no matches go beyond 11pm as a strict curfew is in place, preventing play from going on late into the night.

Unlike the other three Grand Slams, play at Wimbledon is limited to finish by 11pm – even if a match is still ongoing. The tournament has already come very close to reaching the curfew this year with Laslo Djere defeating Maxime Cressy at 10:58pm on Wednesday.

And there is a risk that even more matches could go late in the first week with matches running behind their usual schedule thanks to a washout on Tuesday, as well as several other rain delays in the first three days.

The curfew is in place to protect local residents from late-night disturbances and came into effect in 2009 when a roof was built on Centre Court – something that allowed matches to continue at night under the lights. The local Merton Council put the time limit into place when granting planning permission for the roof.

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There have been a few occasions where the curfew has just been broken – including by Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal. The pair took to the court after 8pm for their semi-final match back in 2018 after Kevin Anderson needed six hours and 36 minutes to beat John Isner in the earlier clash that day.

After splitting the first two sets, the third went to a tiebreak and officials let them finish the beaker before suspending play. Djokovic took it 11-9 and the match was suspended at 11:02pm – meaning they broke curfew.

In a statement issued that same year, Wimbledon said: “The 11pm curfew is a Planning Condition applied to balance the consideration of the local residents with the scale of an international tennis event that takes place in a residential area.

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“The challenge of transport connectivity and getting visitors home safely is also a key consideration.” Last year’s finalist Nick Kyrgios has also been caught out by the curfew before – having one of his matches suspended in 2021.

Facing Frenchman Ugu Humbert, the pair were level at 3-3 in the fifth set when they had to stop the match and come back the following day. The match was played before match tiebreakers were introduced at 6-6 in the final set meaning Kyrgios had to win it 9-7 in the decider.

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