The Spanish Carlos Alcaraz, number one in the world, will not play his second round match this Thursday, as planned, by decision of the organization, which intends to end that day with all first round matches and has decided to move the duel of the Spanish to Friday.
Alcaraz, whose first match was on Tuesday, will be two days without competing, an anomaly in a Grand Slam, which has been forced by delays, cancellations and suspensions due to rain in the last two days of the tournament. The Murcian, who defeated Jeremy Chardy in his debut at the All England Club, will seek a place in the third round against Frenchman Alexandre Müller.
The Wimbledon organization decreed yesterday the cancellation of 21 matches due to lack of time and the suspension of another eleven due to lack of light. The tournament had 87 matches scheduled, but the heavy rain that fell for a good part of the morning disrupted the plans for the third Grand Slam of the season for yet another day.
The organization announced the cancellations with droppers and around 8:30 p.m. local time decreed that the game was stopped on the outdoor courts due to limited visibility due to lack of light.
This will cause Wimbledon to try to finish all the remaining first round matches this Thursday and for this they have moved some of the second round (which was supposed to end this Thursday) to Friday, as is the case with Carlos Alcaraz.
Thus, the Wimbledon tournament intends to play 77 matches this Thursday, with which the first round would end completely, both in men’s and women’s, in addition to a good part of the second round.
The weather conditions in London should improve for this Thursday and it shouldn’t rain, breaking a streak of two days in a row that have been wet in the British capital and that have not allowed the match schedule to be completed normally.
The organization’s position regarding the possibility of advancing the start of the day (scheduled at 11:00 local time) or increasing the number of games on covered courts, is negative since they trust that they will be able to end the games on time.
The individual draws are joined from this Thursday by the doubles draws. The good news is that this year Wimbledon has changed the doubles matches from the best of five sets to the best of three.
