Early start at Wimbledon after rain disruption

Organisers bring play on Court One and Centre Court forward an hour after downpours disrupt big-name matches at the start of Wimbledon's second week.

Spectators shelter from the rain under umbrellas on 'Murray Mound' while watching the fourth round men's singles match between Britain's Andy Murray and Croatia's Marin Cilic

Play will get underway earlier than planned at Wimbledon today as organisers attempt to cope with the backlog of matches caused by yesterday's downpour.

Persistent rain brought an early end to all matches except those on Centre Court last night.

Andy Murray's fourth-round tussle with Marin Cilic will be first up on Court One as action gets underway at noon (3pm GST).

British number one Murray - whose scheduling on Court One sparked surprise - was left waiting for almost three hours before learning there would be no resumption tonight of his match against Croatian Cilic.

Murray led 7-5 3-1 and by 40-love on serve in the fifth game of the second set, having recovered from a slow start to the contest.

He was seen leaving the grounds immediately after the announcement there would be no further play.

There had been speculation Murray and Cilic would move to continue under the closed roof on Centre, however Novak Djokovic's win against Victor Troicki proved to be the last action of the day.

There had been morning fears that no play would be possible at all apart from on Centre Court, with poor weather predicted for most of the day, one of the busiest of the Championships on which all the fourth-round singles matches were scheduled to be played.

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