Gerry Armstrong to succeed Andrew Jarrett as Wimbledon referee in 2020

Gerry Armstrong will succeed Andrew Jarrett as tournament referee in 2020, Wimbledon has announced.

Jarrett has held the post since 2006 but will retire after next summer’s tournament.

Armstrong, Wimbledon’s assistant referee, retired following a 41-year career as a chair umpire three years ago.

He was in the chair for eight Wimbledon singles finals but is most famous for having defaulted John McEnroe from a match at the 1990 Australian Open for verbal abuse.

Wimbledon also announced a number of changes for next year’s tournament.

The start of play on courts apart from Centre and Court One has been brought forward from 11.30am to 11am while Wimbledon has followed the US Open and Australian Open by increasing the size of the women’s qualifying draw to 128 players to bring it in line with the men.

As a result there will no longer be qualifying events in the doubles but, for the first time following successful invitation tournaments this year, quad wheelchair singles and doubles events will be added to the schedule.