Wimbledon: Jannik Sinner and Novak Djokovic Are Changing the Rules of the Game

Wimbledon’s most anticipated semifinal breaks with tradition and changes the rules of the game. Jannik Sinner and Novak Djokovic, the stars of this year’s rematch of last year’s showdown, will take the court for the second match of the day on Center Court, following the semifinal between Arthur Fery and Alexander Zverev, which began at 2:30 p.m. This decision marks a departure from tournament tradition and reshapes the schedule.

Traditionally, in fact, the first men’s semifinal featured the players who took the court in Tuesday’s quarterfinals. This time, however, even though Sinner and Djokovic played a day earlier than the other semifinalists, they will be the ones to close out the day.
This change benefits both the world No. 1—who has recently faced some challenges in the early rounds—and Djokovic, who will have a few more hours to recover from his marathon match against Felix Auger-Aliassime that lasted over five hours.

The draw’s pairings prompted organizers to revise the schedule to ensure that the Center Court crowd gets to see the most anticipated match at the peak of attention. Sinner and Djokovic will take the court immediately after Felix Zverev: about half an hour for warm-ups, then the battle begins. The chosen time slot also opens up the possibility of play continuing past sunset. In that case, as has already happened over the past two weeks, a brief break of about twenty minutes will be needed to close the roof and turn on the floodlights.

Sinner and Djokovic will face off at Wimbledon for the third time in the semifinals: in 2023, the Serbian won in three sets; in 2025, the South Tyrolean got his revenge before winning the title in the historic final against Carlos Alcaraz. Now, in 2026, a new chapter: different in the schedule, identical in anticipation.