Andy Murray is exploring the last few days of his career, playing on the prestigious grass courts. Although his singles journey was cut short, the 37-year-old decided to compete in doubles, partnering with his brother Jamie Murray. This decision led to controversy when tournament authorities offered him a prime slot on Centre Court as a gesture of respect.

Soon after the Day 3 matches ended, the authorities posted the schedule for the next day. This included a slot for Andy Murray’s doubles match on Centre Court, where fans would see the Murray brothers face John Peers and Rinky Hijikata. The authorities likely viewed this as a tribute to a notable competitor who won the singles title twice in his career.

This controversy arose after Andy Murray withdrew from the singles competition due to injury. His team announced the update on Tuesday morning: “Unfortunately after working very hard on his rehabilitation since he had an operation just about over a week ago Andy has decided not to participate in the singles this time,” they said.

However, not everyone favored the slot offered to the Briton, especially in light of Ons Jabeur’s situation. The Tunisian, who finished as runner-up last year, was placed on Court No. 14 instead of a more prestigious court. During her first-round match against Moyuka Uchijima, the 2022 and 23 runner-up had to begin with a low-priority court. However, the Tunisian didn’t spend a lot of time on the court and took down her rival in just 55 minutes.

Coming back to Murray, this news shocked those hoping to see one last singles performance from Murray. While he wasn’t able to compete in singles, the scheduling controversy has raised questions about his doubles journey as well.

Fans come up with “do better Wimbledon” slogans over Andy Murray’s center-court slot

An active social media page, Tennis Schedules, was among the first to post Day 4’s schedule. The graphic included matches to be played on Centre Court and Court 1. Fans were unhappy and voiced their concerns in the comments.

A fan seemed to be quite affected by the latest update. “Rybakina??????????? They can’t disrespect a former champion like that….. Do better Wimbledon,” she wrote. Her concern didn’t revolve around a fine slot for Murray but not saving a prestigious court for Elena Rybakina, who was also scheduled to play her second-round match on the same day.

Another fan despised the decision of the authorities. “People ask me as a Brit why Wimbledon is my least favourite slam. Frankly. among other things it’s this garbage,” he said, accepting a major flaw in the scheduling process. This wasn’t the only issue with scheduling. Players like Stan Wawrinka had to come forward and urge them to be quick with providing tables.

A fan, referring to all of this as British bias, commented, “The British bias in scheduling is getting ridiculous!” There were other notable players like Alexander Zverev who could prove to be a better fit for this slot.

“What a terrible day to have tickets,” a fan wrote, clearly confirming the fact that he wasn’t interested in spectating Andy Murray’s showdown against the Australian duo. The veteran’s declining performance graph in the ongoing season has brought him down in the list of favorites.

There were many who wished to see Elena Rybakina play in a prestigious court. “No show court for Rybakina” another fan wrote, because she’s a former Wimbledon 2022 champion and also made it to the quarter-finals last year.

With these and several other comments on a similar note, the fans despised the prestigious slot given to Andy Murray. While it is acceptable that several other players deserve to unleash the levels on prestigious courts, it is still a subjective matter of picking names.