Novak Djokovic confronted tournament referee Denise Parnell during his Wimbledon quarterfinal against Felix Auger-Aliassime on July 7 after she announced the Centre Court roof would close at 7:40 PM. The dispute occurred with the match tied at one set apiece. Carlos Alcaraz, who was watching, questioned who would benefit from the decision.
The argument began when Parnell informed the players of the planned closure. Djokovic questioned the timing and consistency with earlier matches.
"The other day you didn’t want to close it until 8:30," he said. "Now you want to close it. You don’t want to get to 8:30? It’s 7:40 now. We can play a whole other set outdoors. We’re an outdoor tournament."
Auger-Aliassime supported the request to keep the roof open. The roof closed anyway before the third set, forcing both players to leave the court briefly. Djokovic won that set 6-3 while Auger-Aliassime took the fourth in a tiebreaker 7-4.
Alcaraz posted a comment on social media during the match asking, "Who do you think benefits from the closed roof?"