Play was stopped at Wimbledon twice on Wednesday when Just Stop Oil members made a protest on Court 18 in the matches between Grigor Dimitrov and Sho Shimabukuro and Katie Boulter versus Daria Saville; it is the latest protest by the group at a sporting event
Wednesday 5 July 2023 17:44, UK
Play was interrupted twice at Wimbledon on Wednesday when Just Stop Oil members made a protest on Court 18 during two separate matches.
Grigor Dimitrov and Sho Shimabukuro were in the early stages of the second set in their first-round match when the first protest happened.
Two protesters came on court with T-shirts that were revealed to say 'Just Stop Oil' and threw orange confetti and jigsaw pieces. A woman was escorted off court as a man sat down cross-legged before being taken away.
Around two hours later, another protester entered Court 18 during the first-set tie-break between Britain's Katie Boulter and Australia's Daria Saville. Boulter went on to win the match in straight sets.
"We are aware of an incident on Court 18 whereby one male has unlawfully entered the field of play and discharged items onto the playing surface," a Met Police statement after the second incident read.
"He was immediately removed from the grounds and arrested on suspicion of aggravated trespass and criminal damage."
A Wimbledon spokesperson added: "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."
Just Stop Oil have also made protests at high-profile sporting events, including the second men's Ashes Test at Lord's, the Premiership rugby final and the World Snooker Championship.
On the first incident, a Wimbledon spokesperson said: "Following an incident on Court 18, two individuals have been arrested on suspicion of aggravated trespass and criminal damage and these individuals have now been removed from the grounds.
"Play on the court was temporarily paused and, following a suspension in play due to a rain delay, play is about to resume."
Dimitrov, who won his match 6-1 6-2 6-1 to reach the second round, said he did not feel threatened and was "OK with everything".
"Obviously it's not pleasant. In the end of the day there is not much you can do. I think everyone in a way did their part as quick as possible," he added.
"I mean, rain was coming so it was also a little bit fortunate to come off the court and have some time to kind of like regroup a little bit and shake it off.
"I thought everything was just handled good. I think after that when we came back on the court was just all good."
The Bulgarian continued: "I think even if we are briefed or whatever, you just don't know how to do certain situations. They can say, 'OK, don't do that, or run off the court', or, 'be ready with your racquet'. I think that's a little bit out of our control.
"The only thing we can do, you all have instincts, right? Even if we're briefed or someone had said something to us, for example, the guy said, 'Can you please stand next to me' as soon as that thing happened, so we have to respect the rule on that end. That's what we did."
Sky Sports' Danyal Khan on the first protest:
"We have had so many suspensions of play due to the rain. The players had come out to resume that match before two protesters from Just Stop Oil went onto the court and threw confetti and puzzle pieces all amongst the court.
"There was orange confetti on the court, the players came off and the referee suspended play. It was kind of short-lived in a way because there was another rain delay.
"The rain came down quite soon after as the ball boys and girls were picking up the confetti one by one to clean the court. They managed to get a hoover out to clean it up.
"We understand the protesters were taken away by police, taken off site. This all comes in the context when we heard from Sally Bolton, the CEO of the All England Club around the enhanced checks we have seen in the last few days and pictures of the long queues and long security checks.
"We understand the enhanced police presence was to look at protests like this and minimise disruption of play. That did happen but it was somewhat short-lived due to the rain that happened soon after."
