Andy and Jamie Murray have become the latest players to criticise the state of the courts at Wimbledon this year.
France’s 12th seed Kristina Mladenovic complained about a “damaged” court in her second-round defeat on Thursday.
Following his four-set win against against Fabio Fognini on Centre Court, Andy Murray said the court conditions were “not as good as previous years”, while Jamie added they “weren’t good.”
Italian Fognini went further, saying they are “really, really bad”.
At one point in Friday’s third-round match, a return from Fognini bounced on the baseline underneath Andy Murray’s racket.
“There’s quite a few spots on the court, just behind the baseline and just in front of the baseline, where there are quite big lumps of grass, almost like little divots there, which I don’t remember really being the case before,” defending champion Murray said.”I don’t think the court is in as good a condition as previous years.
“I don’t know if it’s anything to do with the weather that they’ve had over the last few weeks and months. It’s been pretty hot, pretty extreme conditions. Not much rain.”
The 30-year-old is back on Centre Court against Frenchman Benoit Paire on Monday.
And he added: “The court, when I played the first match, was great. I think it’s just getting a bit beaten up early. A few of the players have said that about some of the outside courts as well.”
Temperatures have reached 30C in the first week at Wimbledon, with little rain.
Mladenovic twisted an ankle in the warm-up and damaged a knee during her defeat by American Alison Riske on Court 18.She said both players wanted to stop after only two games “in case something bad happened”.
Jamie Murray was knocked out of the men’s doubles in the second round on Friday on Court 18.
He told the Times: “Wimbledon think they’re the best tournament in the world, so they need to be held to those standards, and I don’t think that this year the courts were [of] as high a standard as they could have been.”
Despite his strong criticism, Fognini agreed that the hot conditions had caused the problem, adding: “They do the best that they can. It’s not their fault. I think this year was really sunny days, so the grass is not really good like the last years.”
