Brit Dan Evans, who lost 2-6, 5-7, 3-6 against Alejandro Tabilo (24) of Chile, blasted the authorities after his first-round match, insisting the court was too wet for play to have continued for so long.
Evans, 34, was in tears after slipping at Queen’s on June 18 during his match against Brandon Nakashima but was deemed fit enough to play at SW19.
He said: “It’s sort of the second time it’s happened over the grass where I’ve ended up going on pretty late because of the weather, which has been frustrating. It’s just part and parcel of it.”
“Obviously, my first concern is to be safe after what happened. Obviously, that grass court wasn’t safe where I slipped I don’t think. I didn’t think the court was playable last night for the large majority of the time we was on court.
“The powers that be in the fancy jackets didn’t agree with me and we carried on… I wasn’t very happy. Obviously the people, the ATP supervisor or ITF supervisor, what it is, they were happy with the court, so you sort of play on.
“Yeah, in any normal time, I would have been probably fine with it. But obviously I know the sort of feeling, which is not a good one, to slip quite badly.”