Neil Stubley, the All England Club’s head of courts and horticulture, is quoted in the same report responding to the criticism saying courts are in the same condition as usual.

“We set them up to the exact standard that we've done in many previous years,” he said on Saturday. “Obviously we listen to players, because their feedback is important. But the data shows to us those courts that are in question are within range of the other courts, and they are within the range of previous years.

“That's all we can work to, is the data that we feel is best for the health of the courts.”

Last week Bethanie Mattek-Sands needed surgery after dislocating her right kneecap and rupturing her patella tendon after slipping on court during her match.

The Evening Standard quoted Neil Stubley as going on to say, "Obviously we're dealing with the extreme heat, which we're not used to every single Championships. So from one Championships to another you will get variations in temperatures which will actually have an effect on how you manage the courts.

"We go into The Championships with as healthy grass as we possibly can so we can endure those extremes. So if we get extreme heat, or last year with the extreme wet, we can deal with it. We have the mechanisms in place that we can add water, we can dry them a little bit more. We can actually be in control of how the plant is surviving.

"We've had more matches and more hours played, so that would equate to more wear on the courts."

Asked in the Evening Standard about Court. 18, where Mladenovic fell, suffering a twisted ankle ahead of the match against Riske, Neil said, "We go out, we have a look. We looked at the baselines and the areas that they thought there was an issue. We didn't feel there was. The Grand Slam supervisor and Assistant Referee didn't believe that there was either."