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“When I saw the bar, I was thinking it’s going
to be a pretty rowdy atmosphere,” said Jacob Fearnley, a
23-year-old from Scotland who played college tennis at TCU in
Fort Worth, Texas, and won the contest at the
boisterous-as-can-be Court 6. “Usually they go together — a bar
and a rowdy atmosphere."
While his 3-6, 7-5, 6-2, 6-3 victory over Arthur Cazaux of
France was going on there Wednesday night, the noise was
drifting over to the adjacent Court 8, where Alejandro
Davidovich Fokina of Spain was starting his matchup with
29th-seeded Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada.
There were chants and songs and yells and applause and
foot-stomps. So at 4-3 in the first set, Davidovich Fokina and
Auger-Aliassime spoke with the chair umpire about what was
happening.
The chair umpire called a tournament supervisor and play was
delayed for more than 15 minutes.
Eventually, the crowd was told: “Ladies and gentlemen, the match
is now suspended on this court and will move to Court 7 in just
a few minutes.” And the two players packed up and headed over to
the new site, where Davidovich Fokina completed his 6-7 (7), 6-7
(5), 6-4, 6-1, 6-3 comeback victory.
The two-level bar at Court 6 was introduced last year and, while
popular with spectators, it has been met with divided opinion
from players.
Fearnley, who plays No. 2-seeded Alexander Zverev in the third
round, said that eventually he got used to the way the place
felt.
“As I kind of settled into the match, I kind of blocked it out
as much as I could,” Fearnley said. "Obviously there was some
supporters who were extremely drunk, but it was a great
atmosphere. Amazing atmosphere.”
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