For the second time in a day, protesters stopped play on the same court at Wimbledon by throwing around confetti.
As with any big event, Wimbledon too didn't escape protesters. We've been seeing this happen for a while now at sporting events as activists try to raise public conscience surrounding issues they believe are important. Most of these protests are to do with climate change as many people perceive that to be the biggest threat to people around the world.
Well, even with the generally great organisation at Wimbledon, protesters managed to impact the event. Earlier today a protester ran onto a court and threw around confetti on Court 18 which took time to clean. The match between Dimitrov and Shimabukuro was stopped immediately but continued after the court was cleaned.
It happened again during the match between Katie Boulter and Darie Saville on the same court. At 4-2 in the tiebreak, a protestor ran onto the court to throw around some more confetti which again stopped play for a while. The incident happened on the same court with both Saville and Boulter looking very annoyed by the stoppage.
Protesters in England have warned the AELTC about these things so it's not a huge surprise for the event but it's still rather annoying. Any kind of stoppage of play at the event will be troublesome even if it lasts ten minutes or so.
Play has already been stopped a few times today due to rain and the event is under heavy pressure to cram in as many matches as they can in the schedule. Eventually, the match continued after the court was cleaned.
It's unlikely that we will stop seeing this at the event, especially on the outer courts where you don't have any barriers. People walk by them all the time though it's expected that security will be tightened after these incidents.
I don’t want my grandchildren, nieces and nephews to suffer. Right now, millions of people are being forced outside of the conditions necessary to support human life.
Shortly after the second incident, the tourmanet organizers released a statement, sharing that the person has been arrested.
"Following a further incident on Court 18, one individual has been arrested on suspicion of aggravated trespass and criminal damage. This individual is being removed from the Grounds. Play on the court was briefly paused and has now resumed."
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