Djokovic Calls For Court Covers to Speed Up Rain Delays

Written by: Staff on 12th August 2012

Djokovic Calls For Court Covers to Speed Up Rain Delays

epa03338880 Novak Djokovic of Serbia in action during his Men's Singles Semi Final match against Andy Murray of Britain at the London 2012 Olympic Games Tennis competition in Wimbledon, Greater London, Britain, 03 Augst 2012. EPA/ANDY RAIN |

After major rain interruptions in two of his matches in Toronto, Novak Djokovic has called for court covers to become standard issue for North American events which seem particularly susceptible to showers and their resulting long delays.

The world No. 2 need look no farther than the hard-luck US Open, which has not played a men’s final on schedule since 2007 due to rainstorms which washed out key matches. The same thing came close to happening last week in Canada, where weather was atrocious for both the men in Toronto and the women in Montreal.

Djokovic, the top seed, copped the brunt of two night-time rain halts and was not particularly pleased by the apparent lack of organization.

“The only thing I can take out from this experience aside from trying to be calm and save as much energy as I can, is that I don’t see any reason why hard court tournaments don’t have covers on their courts.

“This tournament, after this year’s experiences, should strongly consider having covers for next year.”

Djokovic was fobbed off by organisers, who told him: “I got an explanation that it’s because the surface itself gets very humid if the covers are on the court, like on the grass.

“But if they inflate the covers, like they do at Wimbledon, it saves us time. Every time the rain was falling for five, ten, or fifteen minutes, we had to wait 45 minutes to get on the court. We lost a lot of time. I think that would be a good solution to the these problems.”

Canadian officials might be inclined to listen after their so-called “virtual” event went all but unnoticed due to competition from the final week of the London Olympics.