Players downplay the chaotic scheduling in Wimbledon's final weekend

The length of this year's men's semifinals led to disruptions at Wimbledon, but players largely played down concerns about the scheduling.

The six-hour, 36-minute semifinal between Kevin Anderson and John Isner was the longest semifinal played at the tournament, and the third longest match on record. It was followed by the second-longest semifinal—five hours, 15 minutes between Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal.

Both were played back-to-back on Centre Court starting at 1:00 P.M., but the length of the first semifinal meant that Djokovic and Nadal began at around 8:00 P.M. with the roof shut to allow them to finish under the lights.

But the length of that match meant it ran up against the local council's rule that play stops at 11:00 P.M., when Djokovic was leading two sets to one. They were scheduled back on court for 1:00 P.M. the following day, again under the roof except with the agreement of both players.

Nadal, who fell 8-6 in the fifth, did not want the roof shut when play resumed.

"No," he said, speaking to press following the match. "But I will not talk more about this. If not, you going to write about this, and I don't want you to write about this today."

Djokovic said he had been under the impression that the players did not get to choose but, following further questioning, acknowledged that he had also told organizers that he wanted the roof shut.

"They told us we had to play under the roof," he said, then adding, "I was for the roof because we started to play, and I wanted to play in the same conditions."

WATCH—Djokovic's desk interview after winning Wimbledon title:

Nadal also suggested that the Anderson-Isner semifinal could have been scheduled second.

"It's true that the schedule was little bit tight knowing that the first match between two big servers, of course you can't predict that they play that long. But yeah, knowing that maybe will be better if they play us first at 1:00, that's all. The rest of the things you can't complain anything that happened," he said.

The delays also affected the 2 P.M. start for the women's final, with Djokovic and Nadal being scheduled to finish their semifinal before Angelique Kerber and Serena Williams took the court.

Both Kerber and Williams said the scheduling was logical, with Kerber saying, "I saw the whole match yesterday, the long match in the semis. I was actually expecting a long match before our match. I think that was the right decision, to put the match before us because they have tomorrow the biggest final."

Anderson, who played a long five-setter against Roger Federer in the quarterfinals before going 26-24 in the fifth against Isner, also wants a tiebreaker in the fifth set at all Grand Slams.

"I think it's at least a conversation worth having, just protecting players health when you have these very long matches," he said.

There were no significant weather delays during the two weeks.

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