Wimbledon: Middle Sunday tickets sell out in half an hour after restricted sale

Middle Sunday play taking place for only fourth time in tournament's history after repeated rain delays

The wet weather has wreaked havoc on the first week of Wimbledon (Getty)

The fourth “People’s Sunday” at Wimbledon will be played in front of smaller crowds than usual after the All England Club decided to make only 22,000 tickets available. An average of 39,175 people have attended the tournament each day so far this year, but the capacity has been cut for the first day’s play on “Middle Sunday” for 12 years.

Tickets, which could only be purchased online, sold out less than half an hour after going on sale at 3pm. There were 10,000 unreserved tickets for Centre Court at £70 each, another 8,000 for No 1 Court at £40 each and 4,000 ground passes, which will allow access to all the other courts, at £40 each. More than 111,000 people went online to try to buy them.

Wimbledon decided to schedule play on Middle Sunday for only the fourth time – after 1991, 1997 and 2004 – in order to clear the backlog of matches caused by the bad weather in the first week. Richard Lewis, the All England Club’s chief executive, said: “This has been a difficult decision, but one we had to take to reduce the backlog of matches and in the interests of completing The Championships on time. And as with other Middle Sundays I am sure there will be a great atmosphere.”

Wimbledon was keen to stress that no tickets would be available at the All England Club on the day. The tickets were sold via Ticketmaster on a first-come, first-served basis.

Play will start at 11.30am on all courts, including Centre Court and Court One. Spectators are advised to arrive early, to expect delays for security and to avoid bringing bags where possible. There will be no refund system in place if play is cancelled due to rain.