Night play came to Wimbledon in all but name last night. At 8.35pm — with Katie O’Brien and Alona Bondarenko still going at it hammer and tongs on No 15 Court — Novak Djokovic and Olivier Rochus were interrupted after the completion of three sets and told to hang around for half an hour while the Centre Court roof was closed and the air management system kicked in.
The crowd was in full, demonstrative Mexican-wave mode and the idea that Wimbledon is an outdoor event, something specified by the All England Club, had suffered a terminal setback.
Eventually, at 10.58pm — the latest finish for any match at Wimbledon — the No 3 seed from Serbia prevailed 4-6, 6-2, 3-6, 6-4, 6-2.
Although Wimbledon has gone out of its way to assauge local residents that it will not become a night event, the conclusion at about the time that pubs in the village were calling last orders, has driven a stake through that assertion.
Andrew Jarrett, the referee, had entered the fray at the end of the third set — Ian Ritchie, the chief executive, had been in attendance before that — to confirm that “any match originally scheduled for the Centre Court may normally be completed and if necessary the roof closed for reasons of light as well as rain”.
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Which is a useful get-out clause. Rochus was on a roll and the interruption clearly hurt him. Djokovic, whose heart is set on winning Wimbledon, no doubt relished the chance to regroup.
Roger Federer was not the only player to survive by the skin of his teeth. Nikolay Davydenko, on his return to London after clinching the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals last November, and Marsel Ilhan, the Turk who could yet be the scourge of British tennis next month, each pulled a rabbit out of the hat.
Davydenko trailed Kevin Anderson, a giant of a server from South Africa, by two sets and Ilhan, a qualifier, started against Marcos Daniel, of Brazil, playing in the manner we hope he might adopt in the Davis Cup in Eastbourne next month. Unfortunately, he finished off Daniel with a considerable flourish, winning 6-7, 4-6, 6-2, 6-3, 6-1.
Davydenko deserved every bit of the kudos that went his way on No 1 Court. The match did not exactly titillate, but it ended up, as many matches involving the Russian do, with the crowd marvelling at his powers of durability as he won 3-6, 6-7, 7-6, 7-5, 9-7.