Wimbledon: Why Matteo Berrettini’s match against Stan Wawrinka was suspended for twenty minutes

The match between Matteo Berrettini and Stan Wawrinka, a first-round match at Wimbledon, was interrupted by an extra break—lasting a total of twenty minutes—between the second and third sets. On Court 1 at the All-England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, the organizers had to suspend the match to ensure the best possible conditions for continuing play under artificial lighting.

The twenty-minute break, which came after an interminable tiebreak won by Berrettini 18–16—allowing the Roman to even the score after losing, again in the end-of-set tiebreak, the first set. This break allowed tournament organizers to coordinate the closing of the court’s roof, ensuring the match could continue even past 8:00 p.m. local time.

The match between Berrettini and Wawrinka is one of the most anticipated of this early stage of the tournament: the Italian is eager to return to the spotlight on the stage where he reached the final in 2021, losing with honor to Novak Djokovic, while the Swiss player is making his final appearance at the Championships, having announced some time ago that he will retire at the end of the season.