Taylor Fritz has explained the controversy around the decision to suspend his first-round match at Wimbledon and has put the responsibility at the feet of his opponent.
Fifth seed Fritz, who successfully defended his Eastbourne title a couple of days before the start of Wimbledon, was locked at two sets apiece with big-serving Frenchman Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard on Monday evening when the decision was taken to suspend the clash and play to a conclusion on Tuesday.
Wimbledon’s famous curfew means that players must be off court by a hard deadline of 11pm although the fact that it was 10.18pm when this Court 1 clash was pulled off highlights the grey area that often exists around these decisions.
Fritz had just rallied from 5-1 down in the fourth-set tiebreak to keep the match going, ultimately triumphing 8-6 to force a decider with the score reading 6-7, 6-7, 6-4, 7-6, and pounded his right fist on his chest, yelling, “Let’s f****** go! Come on!” as he clinched the set-winning point.
The players would have had 42 minutes to complete a fifth set and their four previous sets had lasted 44 minutes, 48 minutes, 33 minutes and 45 minutes, meaning it would have been tight to complete the match in the timeframe.
But the American was clearly desperate to continue and was visibly frustrated when the officials then informed him that the players were being dragged off and would have to return on Tuesday. “Then don’t ask me,” Fritz exasperatedly said as he sat down in his chair and packed up his rackets, before saying to his box that he “couldn’t do anything.”
Taylor Fritz was annoyed at not being able to play the fifth set of his clash with Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard on Monday evening (Getty Images)
Fritz shouted to his box that he couldn’t do anything about the suspension (Getty Images)
The crowd were similarly annoyed as they missed out on witnessing the conclusion to a gripping match that had been going on for two hours and 53 minutes until that point.
And now the 27-year-old has appeared to reveal more about the controversy on Instagram. On a post by user glue.guy which was bemoaning the curfew as “the dumbest rule in sports”, Fritz posted a reply stating “They would’ve let us play if my opponent agreed to, I said I wanted to he didn’t.”
Mpetshi Perricard’s apparent reluctance to play a fifth set would have been understandable, given that all the momentum was with his opponent – having not only fought back from two sets down to level the match but having been right on the brink of defeat at 5-1 in the fourth-set tiebreak.
Borderline decisions on whether to begin another set ahead of the Wimbledon curfew are left up to the discretion of the officials, although the players are often consulted.
