ANDY MURRAY is battling to pull off a major upset as his Centre Court progress was halted by the strict Wimbledon curfew.
As the clock ticked to 10.39pm, the Scot’s second-round tussle with No.5 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas was suspended by French chair umpire Aurelie Tourte.
Andy Murray will resume his match against Stefanos Tsitsipas in the morning
Tsitsipas was booed for his long bathroom break
Play was stopped with Murray leading 2-1 in sets – 6-7 7-6 6-4 – following more than three hours of combat.
Tournament referee Gerry Armstrong asked both players if they wanted to stop after the third set and they agreed – even though fans booed the decision.
It means Murray, who had suffered cramp, must return on Friday – exactly 10 years since that epic first Wimbledon triumph – to try to book a third-round spot with Serbian Laslo Djere on Saturday.
More than 10,000 fans who had spent hundreds of pounds on tickets were denied the chance to watch the Scot, 36, conclude this epic SW19 match.
In the small print for the 2009 planning condition for the £100million is the agreement that tennis action on the lawns will NOT extend into the final hour of the day.
It was put in place by councillors in consideration of local residents, to stop any midnight play and to ensure the fans all got home in time.
The first two matches of the day had overrun and it was 7.45pm by the time Murray and Tsitsipas hit the first balls in anger in their third-ever encounter
Organisers decided to shut the roof before the start of proceedings rather than have the disruption and delay later on as the light faded.
Athens ace Tsitsipas, 24, won the opening set on a tie-break but Murray responded by drawing level at 1-1 in the second set tie-break.
Murray – who still wore his white baseball cap despite the match taking place indoors – is facing his highest-ranked opponent at Wimbledon for eight years.
Should he succeed, he will celebrate a 200th Grand Slam match-win.
It went on so long that TV had to delay the Ten O’Clock News on BBC1, which is extremely uncommon for a sporting occasion.
Tsitsipas was booed by fans before the start of the third set because he took too long in the LOO!
It had echoes of the last time they had met at a major, at the 2021 US Open, when the 24-year-old was accused of dirty gamesmanship tactic following an EIGHT-MINUTE bathroom stoppage.
During the 2012 tournament, Murray beat Cypriot Marcus Baghdatis at 11.02pm as special dispensation was allowed for him to finish his third-round tie after the imposed deadline.
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