Novak Djokovic‘s quarterfinal meeting with Felix Auger-Aliassime was briefly stopped, and the seven-time Wimbledon champion did not shy away from showing his frustration. With the match locked at one set apiece, tournament referee Denise Parnell announced that the Center Court roof would be closed at 7:40 pm. But Djokovic couldn’t hold back and confronted her directly courtside. 

“The other day you didn’t want to close it until 8:30. Now you want to close it. You don’t want to get to 8:30? It’s 7:40 now. We can play a whole another set outdoors. We’re an outdoor tournament,” Djokovic said.

When the supervisor referenced Jannik Sinner’s earlier match, Djokovic shut the comparison down. “With Jannik, I don’t care what happens in his matches. I’m talking about our match right now,” he said.

He then pointed to a specific inconsistency from earlier in the tournament. “You remember the first round, you didn’t close it til like 8:20. Now you want to close it at 7:40. Where’s the consistency?” he added, before accusing officials of applying their own guidelines selectively. “You’re so proud of your rules and you’re not sticking to any kind of rules. You have no idea what the rule is.” Auger-Aliassime backed his opponent, also asking for the roof to remain open.

Djokovic won the opening set 7-6(10) after an 82-minute epic that included a medical timeout for a calf issue, before Auger-Aliassime leveled with a 6-3 second set. In the third set, the score is 1-1, and it took 34 minutes to reach that point, including the closing of the roof.

Earlier in the tournament, after the second-round match against Stefanos Tsitsipas, he made clear how much he values staying outdoors on grass. “Overall, nice to be playing another indoor Wimbledon match, I guess. I’m looking forward to an outdoor hopefully next round!” he said at the time. 

“It’s just my desire. I’d love to play an outdoor Wimbledon grass court match. Haven’t had a chance so far. So let’s see,” he added in his press match conference. Soon, in the next match, his wish was granted with a daytime match against Arthur Rinderknech. 

More than anything else, the rhythm matters due to the way the ball skids and rolls when conditions turn indoor once the roof is shut. He is far from being the only player in the past week to take issue with how Wimbledon handles its two showcourt roofs. 

Grigor Dimitrov’s roof frustrations carry the weight of last year’s injury

Grigor Dimitrov has been the most vocal critic of the policy throughout the tournament, and his frustration has a much heavier context than Djokovic’s. The Bulgarian tore his pectoral muscle in last year’s fourth round against Sinner, minutes after the Center Court roof was closed. This did not just end a match he was dominating, but forced him into a long recovery as well. This year, the roof was shut off in both of his second-round and third-round victories over Jakub Mensik and Matteo Berrettini, triggering the same wound.

Following the Berrettini match, Dimitrov questioned a tournament official about why the roof could not be closed gradually while the match was still in session. “I’m struggling to really understand. I don’t understand why can’t we start closing it during the game. Why isn’t it up to the players?” he said, a question he had already raised after the Mensik match and repeated again in his on-court interview afterwards.

Dimitrov has openly admitted the déjà vu has rattled him, describing how he looked up at the roof several times during the Mensik match, hoping to finish before it closed again. With many players complaining about the roof policy, Wimbledon might look to make some changes regarding it for next year’s edition.