Marin Cilic questions early start time after losing in the 4th round at Wimbledon

LONDON (AP) – Marin Cilic wasn’t happy with the scheduling at Wimbledon on Monday after losing to Flavio Cobolli in a fourth-round match that started as arranged at 11 a.m. local time.

The 36-year-old Cilic said he had to warm up indoors as the Wimbledon practice courts don’t open until 9:30 a.m. and that the No. 2 Court where his match was played was still quite soft after it rained overnight.

Play on the outside courts at Wimbledon is scheduled to start at 11 a.m. (1000 GMT) throughout the fortnight, whereas matches on Centre Court and No. 1 Court begin at least two hours later.

But Cilic questioned whether tournament organizers shouldn’t put all singles matches later in the day in the fourth round.

“I don’t like to speak about the conditions. OK, I lost and everything. I have to accept it,” Cilic said. “But I feel bitter because why is there a need to play at 11?”

The Cobolli-Cilic meeting was the only one of the eight singles matches played Monday that had such an early start time.

Liudmila Samsonova’s match against Jessica Bouzas Maneiro followed Cobolli and Cilic on No. 2 Court, while the other six matches were played on Centre Court and No. 1 Court.

“It’s raining overnight, and the court was quite soft,” Cilic said. “It was really difficult to play on. You just push the ball in the middle of the court, and the ball just stays super low. It was just a struggle.”

He lost 6-4, 6-4, 6-7 (4), 7-6 (3). Still, it was a relatively successful Wimbledon for Cilic, the 2014 U.S. Open champion who was runner-up at the All-England Club in 2017.

Cilic is coming back to top-level tennis after having two knee operations and then playing in lower-level Challenger Tour events this year to boost his ranking. He had to make it through qualifying rounds just to get into the bracket at the French Open, where he lost in the first round.

“I have great encouragement, happiness, positive attitude, and positive outcomes out of the tournament,” he said. “I found great form, played some fantastic tennis. Even today was quite close.”