Rain, activists affect play at Wimbledon

WIMBLEDON, England (AP):

Rain again affected play at Wimbledon on Day 3 of the grass-court tournament, and environmental activists also halted two matches.

Intermittent showers yesterday forced matches on the outside courts to be suspended twice, while play in the main stadiums was also stopped for a short time because of the weather.

That didn't stop top-ranked woman Iga Swiatek and defending men's champion Novak Djokovic from reaching the third round in straight sets on Centre Court. However, it prevented several other players from even taking the court, with some first-round matches pushed back until today.

Two Just Stop Oil protesters were arrested after disrupting one match by running onto Court 18 and throwing orange confetti onto the grass before being led off by security. That stopped the first-round encounter between Grigor Dimitrov and Sho Shimabukuro early in the second set, and the rain then came before the confetti could be cleared.

The match resumed with the others after the rain delay. The two protesters were arrested "on suspicion of aggravated trespass and criminal damage," the All England Club said in a statement.

A few hours later, during the next match on the same court, another man representing the same organisation also threw orange confetti on the grass before security guards corralled him and dragged him away. He was also arrested.

"Obviously, it's not pleasant," Dimitrov said about the disruption after winning in straight sets. "At the end of the day, there is not much you can do. I think everyone, in a way, did their part as quickly as possible. I mean, the 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 and shake it off."

Wimbledon increased security in coordination with London police and other agencies for this year's tournament because of protests at other major sports venues in Britain this year.

Rain on the first two days had already created a large backlog of matches.

Only Centre Court and No. 1 Court at the All England Club have roofs.

On Centre Court yesterday, Swiatek eased into the third round with a 6-2, 6-0 win over Sara Sorribes Tormo, hitting 27 winners compared to just three for her opponent. Djokovic was next and defeated Jordan Thompson of Australia 6-3, 7-6 (4), 7-5 to become the third player in history to reach 350 Grand Slam match wins - joining Roger Federer and Serena Williams.