Arthur Fery’s Wimbledon semi-final with Alexander Zverev will be played from 1:30pm BST after it was moved ahead of the second semi-final between Novak Djokovic and Jannik Sinner.
The players in the top half of the men’s draw usually play their semi-final first on Friday, as they have two full days off following their quarter-finals on Tuesday.
Fery defeated Flavio Cobolli on Wednesday while Zverev knocked out Taylor Fritz but will return to court before Djokovic and Sinner, even though Djokovic and Sinner played on Tuesday.
Wimbledon’s scheduling committee considers various factors, as well as requests from players and broadcast partners, when determining each day’s order of play.
Djokovic required five hours and 15 minutes to beat Felix Auger-Aliassime in the longest Wimbledon quarter-final in historiy on Tuesday night, so will have a few more hours of recovery before playing Sinner.
Defending champion Sinner, meanwhile, will avoid playing in the hottest part of the day as his blockbuster against Djokovic will not start until around 5pm BST.
The BBC will also be able to show Fery’s match against Zverev on BBC 1, avoiding a potential clash with the World Cup quarter-final between Spain and Belgium, which they have the rights for later that evening.
Scheduling the Djokovic and Sinner match second also works for ESPN and the American audience, with Fery and Zverev’s match now starting in the earlier time of 8:30am ET instead.
