Saturday 2 July 2016 16:19, UK
Wimbledon will stage matches on its middle Sunday for the first time since 2004 because of continuing bad weather.
A backlog of matches became more serious on Friday as rain meant there was barely any play by 3pm, and play was again brought to a halt before light disappeared in the evening.
The middle Sunday is traditionally a rest day at Wimbledon but the additional day is a back-up option in the event of persistent rain during the first week.
Tournament officials made their decision to play on Sunday on Friday evening, with gates opening at 8.45am and play to start at 11.30am on all courts, including Centre and Court One.
Tickets sold out in 27 minutes, with five times more people attempting to buy them than the 22,000 made available, according to a Wimbledon spokesman.
Richard Lewis, chief executive of the All England Club, said: "This has been a difficult decision, but one we had to take to reduce the backlog of matches and in the interests of completing The Championships on time. And as with other Middle Sundays I am sure there will be a great atmosphere."
Play on Centre Court has continued through the week, because of the retractable roof that makes it an all-weather stadium.
But heavy rainfall on Tuesday and Wednesday caused schedulers a major headache that could be relieved by an extra day's play.
Thursday saw a full day's action, but on Friday, when the start of play was brought forward to 11am from 11.30am, the rain returned until mid-afternoon.
Play did restart on the outside courts, but not enough matches in the singles tournaments were completed to avoid the use of the middle Sunday.
Tournament organisers announced on Friday afternoon that the format for the second round of men's doubles would be changed from best-of-five-set matches to best-of-three, in a drive to reduce court time, having previously made the same decision for the first round.
