The Championships, Wimbledon 2008 — Provisional Programme of Play
About Wimbledon - The Championships
Provisional Programme of Play

Order of Play
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The grounds will open at 10.30am each day. On Courts 2-19 play is provisionally scheduled to start at noon for at least the first eight days and then at 11am for the Junior matches on the middle Saturday and during the second week.

On Centre and No.1 Courts, play will start at 1pm, except on the final two days when play on these courts will start at 2pm. Please check the daily order of play.
 
 Provisional schedule of matches

During the first week, the early rounds of the Men’s and Ladies’ Singles, Men’s, Ladies’ and Mixed Doubles will be played on all courts, with top seeds’ matches played on the show courts. On the middle Saturday the Veterans’ and Juniors’ events commence and will be played on the outside courts as well as on some of the Show Courts.

Start Dates: Competition:
Mon 23 June Men's and Ladies' Singles Start
Tue 24 June Men's and Ladies' Doubles Start
Thu 26 June Mixed Doubles Start
Sat 28 June Boys' and Girls' Singles Start
Veterans' Invitational Doubles Start
Mon 30 June Boys' and Girls' Doubles Start
Sat 5 July Gentlemen's Wheelchair Doubles Start

Dates: Competition: Court:
Tue 1 July Ladies' Singles (Quarter-Finals) CC & No.1
Wed 2 July Men's Singles  (Quarter-Finals) CC & No.1
Thu 3 July Ladies' Singles (Semi-Finals)
Championship Doubles (Semis)
 CC
CC or No.1
Fri 4 July Men's Singles (Semi-Finals)
Championship Doubles (Semis) 		CC
CC or No.1
Sat 5 July Ladies' Singles (Final)
Men's Doubles (Final)
Ladies' Doubles (Final)		 CC
CC
CC
Sun 6 July Men's Singles (Final)
Mixed Doubles (Final) 		CC
CC

On the last three days on No.1 Court, there will be a full programme of play, it will comprise juniors' and veterans' matches, with the possibility of Championship Doubles Semi-Finals.
 
 Order of Play

The matches for each day are prepared in draft the previous evening by the Referee and submitted by him to the Order of Play committee for approval or amendment.

Every effort is made to have the potentially most attractive matches played on the courts with the most spectator accommodation, but care is also taken to give any player likely to go far in the tournament his or her fair share of the Show Courts.
 
 Changes to the Order of Play

Code of conduct
We do try to play all matches on the courts and days published. However, occasionally it is necessary to switch a match from one court to another. This can be for a number of reasons.


For example:
  • We aim to complete The Championships on time and this involves playing all matches, in all events, over the 13 days of the tournament.

  • Some players remain involved in several events towards the end of The Championships and it may be necessary to move a match to avoid a clash.

  • We try to give similar rest periods between matches for players due to play each other.

    • A match which is unlikely to finish because of a late start, caused by the duration of previous matches, may be postponed to the following day. In this event another match may be substituted.
We recognise that this may be frustrating and we apologise for the rare occasions when circumstances necessitate a change to the published Order of Play. We hope you will appreciate why such changes sometimes have to be made.

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