(adds details of men's semis, women's final)
By Pritha Sarkar
LONDON, July 5 - Wimbledon organisers have
defended their stance not to play on the middle Sunday of the
rain-hit championships amid growing criticism from players.
Officials are struggling to clear a backlog of matches after
eight days of rain severely disrupted the schedule but
tournament referee Andrew Jarrett was confident the singles
finals would still take place over the weekend as expected.
"At the moment we can finish on Sunday and that is what we
are planning to do but obviously that can change," Jarrett told
reporters.
Organisers are planning to start both men's semi-finals on
Saturday at 1000 GMT, with one of them being staged on Court
One.
"The ladies singles final will not be before 1300 on Centre
Court (on Saturday," Jarrett added in a statement.
The relentless rain left the soggy championships 177 matches
behind schedule with five days to go but by the end of
Wednesday, the drier conditions cut the backlog to 36 in the
five major competitions.
Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic were particularly irritated
that they were unable to complete their third round matches
until Wednesday, four days behind schedule, and hit out at
officials for not allowing play on the middle Sunday, a
traditional rest day.
Three times in past championships matches have been staged
on the middle Sunday when rain played havoc with the opening
week's schedule.
"You can only make decisions based on facts and the fact is
on Saturday morning when the decision needed to be taken we were
exactly where we wanted to be singles-wise," said Jarrett.
"We couldn't have played another singles further ahead than
where we were at the time.
"We were also faced with a weather forecast that was less
than promising for Sunday. There was no justification for it.
"What has hurt is having a subsequent bad Monday and Tuesday
and that has given us the backlog. Then you can apply hindsight,
which certainly didn't apply on Saturday."
Despite showers being forecast for Sunday, the day turned
out mostly dry.
Some players in the bottom half of the men's draw, which
includes Nadal and Djokovic, face the prospect of having to play
every day this week if they are to contest Sunday's final.
The last time Wimbledon failed to finish on schedule was in
2001, when wildcard Goran Ivanisevic pulled off a five-set win
over Pat Rafter on the third Monday of the slam.
The current backlog is the worst since 1982, when more than
three times the average midsummer rainfall also forced third
round matches into the second Wednesday.