
The Wimbledon crowd broke an unwritten rule in their support of British number one Jack Draper during his second-round clash against Marin Cilic.
Draper, the world number four, was 6-2 6-2 6-1 up on Sebastian Baez when the Argentine retired from their first-round clash at the All England Club.
But Great Britain’s biggest hope at Wimbledon found himself locked in a tight and tense game with 2024 US Open champion Cilic on Court One in the second round.
Big-serving Cilic, 36, took a commanding two-set lead over the Brit in front of a disappointed and partisan home crowd.
During one of Cilic’s service games early in the third set, the match umpire handed the Croatian star a time violation warning as he dawdled over a key serve at 30-40 down.
Cilic is known as one of the slowest players between points on serve, often bouncing the ball up to 15 times before delivering his 140mph bombs.
As the umpire announced the decision, loud cheers and applause erupted around Court One.


An unwritten rule at many sporting events is that fans do not cheer the misfortune of a player but some frustrated spectators even ordered Cilic to ‘hurry up’ after the intervention from the umpire.
The umpire was forced to tell the crowd to settle down but more outbursts were heard when Cilic tried to compose himself, leading to another announcement from the umpire.
‘Please guys, please,’ he said. ‘Please, no more.’
Cilic was broken for the first time in the match in the very next point and Draper went on to dominate the third set 6-1.

The BBC commentator said: ‘The timer [for players to complete a serve between points] did hit zero, big moment.’
Some social media users criticised the spectators who cheered Cilic’s time violation but others were supportive of the umpire’s decision.
‘It was about time Marin Cilic got a time violation,’ one wrote. ‘He’s been taking ages to serve.’
More to follow…