Novak Djokovic accused a Wimbledon official of not knowing the tournament’s rules in a row over closing the roof during his clash with Felix Auger-Aliassime.
A frustrated Djokovic was caught in a tense exchange with referee Denise Parnell following the decision to shut the roof on Centre Court during their quarter-final on Tuesday.
Auger-Aliassime had levelled the match at one set all when Wimbledon chiefs made the call. The Canadian world No 4 was also in favour of keeping the roof open.
And Djokovic was spotted protesting to Parnell before the start of the third set in a terse discussion that was caught by TV cameras.
‘Why now? The other day you didn’t want to close it until like 8.30 but now you want to close it?’ The 23-time Grand Slam champion fumed.
‘You don’t want to get to 8.30? It’s 7.40 now, we could play a whole new set in that time.
Novak Djokovic was spotted in a tense exchange with a Wimbledon official over the closure of the roof in his match against Felix Auger-Aliassime
‘I don’t care what happened with other matches – I’m talking about now. In the first round you didn’t close it until like 8.20 and now you want to close it at 7.40? Where’s the consistency?
‘You guys are so proud of your rules and you’re not sticking to any kind of rules. We have no idea what the rule is. This is an outdoor tournament.’
Djokovic, bidding to win a record-equalling eighth Wimbledon title, was backed by former world No 1 Lleyton Hewitt.
‘Rightly so, you can play another set in 40 minutes,’ said Hewitt. ‘Novak is right, every other night they’ve played to a certain point.’
Serbian star Djokovic, 39, had earlier been fined £5,600 by Wimbledon bosses for an ‘audible obscenity’.
The exact incident has not been revealed but Djokovic was heard shouting ‘bulls***’ and swearing in Serbian during his win over Roman Safiullin in the last 16.
