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Wales Online
Sport
Dylan James

What time is Andy Murray playing at Wimbledon today and what are the curfew rules?

Andy Murray's epic second-round clash against world number five seed Stefanos Tsitsipas will resume on Centre Court on Friday, July 7.

On Thursday, the Scotsman fought back after losing the tie breaker in the opening set to pick up two straight sets and break his opponent's serve on multiple occasions.

Tsitsipas' forehand looked to be too much for Murray, but the 36-year-old's excellent ability to return the Greek's serves bore fruit and helped put him in to a 2-1 set lead.

The match was suspended at 10.40pm, though, following the conclusion of the third set due to a curfew enforced by the local council. Around 12,000 people had stayed packed in to the hallowed arena right until the end.

The match was initially delayed massively due to Briton Liam Broady's stunning five-set match against Caser Ruud, which pushed back Elena Rybakina v Alize Cornet on Centre Court.

What time is Andy Murray v Stefanos Tsitsipas on today?

As is the case with all Wimbledon matches, the specific time of a game is hard to call, given the uncertainty of match length. But Centre Court's proceedings don't begin until 1.30pm on Friday, and the first match up is number one seed Carlos Alcaraz v Alexandre Muller.

Murray v Tsitsipas is the next match on the agenda, but won't begin before 3pm as per Wimbledon's rules on suspended overnight matches.

It would be reasonable to expect Murray to return to Centre Court for roughly 4.30pm. But this is all dependent on the match length of Alcaraz v Muller. If this goes the full five sets, fans could be waiting a lot longer to catch the Scottish icon in action. Viewers at home can watch all the action via the BBC.

Why was Andy Murray v Stefanos Tsitsipas stopped early?

The All England Championships have a deadline for play to finish by, meaning play cannot continue at Wimbledon beyond 11pm. That is why Murray's second-round game was stopped at 10.39pm following the third set.

There were some boos when it was announced the match would be halted with 21 minutes still to go until the cut-off point.

The 11pm curfew has been in place since 2009 when Centre Court’s roof opened, introduced by Merton Council to obtain planning permission for the roof.

A statement from Wimbledon in 2018 read: “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. The challenge of transport connectivity and getting visitors home safely is also a key consideration.”

What are the Wimbledon curfew rules?

Put simply, it means no play beyond 11pm.

Matches which have previously been paused due to the curfew include Novak Djokovic v Rafael Nadal in their 2018 semi-final after the third set, which started at 8pm.

Nick Kyrgios and Ugo Humbert also had their match suspended when tied at 3-3 in the fifth set too.

However there have been a few exceptions over the years.

The curfew was pushed slightly back in 2012 when Andy Murray beat Marcos Baghdatis at 11.02pm. Murray was just one game from victory at 11pm.

Merton Council’s then-leader Stephen Alambritis said at the time that "flexibility and common sense prevailed", saying: "We were in touch with the All England Club from 10pm onwards and there were discussions between our planning officers and the tournament director. We have always said these prearrangements were to be used with discretion, so I was pleased flexibility and common sense prevailed, because we have a duty to both the residents as well as the tennis.”

In 2010, Novak Djokovic beat Olivier Rochus with two minutes to spare, finishing at 10.58pm.

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