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You know those nights when you tell yourself you’re going to keep your wits about you and not stay out too late, but deep down you know you’re going to do it?
That’s pretty much how ridiculous lateness feels at a tennis Grand Slam.
After the Australian Open ended at 4:05 a.m. last year (3:40 a.m. this time) and the U.S. Open in September 2022 at 2:50 a.m., Roland Garros said in the early hours of Sunday morning: “Keep my biere” (by the record) This is the latest end time of the day’s racing – 3:06 am. At Roland Garros, which won’t be played at night until 2021 (and didn’t have floodlights until a year ago), Novak Djokovic won 7-5, 6- 7(6), 2-6, 6 -3, 6-0, as if it was left out by this ridiculous club.
Wimbledon’s 11pm curfew is the only exception among the four Grand Slam tournaments. Tennis officials said they are learning and they realize these are comical ending times. But they continue.
As silly as the situation was, it was not an intentional set-up at Roland Garros. These results are the result of a dysfunctional sport in tennis, but no one really thinks it’s a good idea, even if the Australian and US Open tennis tournaments have long seemed to view lateness as a badge of honor rather than a serious risk to players’ welfare.
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The Saturday night and Sunday morning games took place because of heavy rain during the first week at Roland Garros. The third round match between Grigor Dimitrov and Zizou Bergers has been postponed by a day and they need to finish before the winner plays again on Sunday.
With the rain still falling, schedulers tried to squeeze it in ahead of Djokovic-Musetti. Dimitrov started the first two sets, but Burges stole the third and the match lasted longer than expected, with Dimitrov ultimately winning.
Djokovic and Musetti did not arrive until about 10:30 p.m., and the original time was 8:15 p.m. Such a move would be impossible as it would deprive evening spectators of the opportunity to watch the game, which is exclusively pay-to-view. So Djokovic and Musetti waited and waited and when the match came it was an epic match and we were all there at 3am wondering how tennis found itself in this position and what it means for the players So harmful.
This incredible match between Musetti and Djokovic came at a price. (Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)
Once players have fulfilled their postgame commitments, that finish could mean anything from 7 a.m. to bedtime.
It wasn’t just Djokovic and Musetti who ended Saturday/Sunday’s game, with Casper Rudd and Thomas Martin Echeverri not coming off until 1am, while Taylor Fritz and Ta Naci Kokkinakis finished the race about an hour early.
Playing that late can affect players’ circadian rhythms and potentially make them feel disoriented for days to come. There’s a reason sleep deprivation is used as a form of torture. Lack of sleep impairs thinking ability, immune system, attention span and reaction time, which are crucial for athletes.
Dr. Robby Sikka is the medical director of the Professional Tennis Players Association (PTPA), the organization co-founded by Djokovic in 2020 to address working conditions for the sport’s most important figures And so on, he believes muscle recovery is only part of the problem.
“There are neurological consequences as well. The more time a player goes through, the longer it takes for neurological recovery, and another five-set match is going to be very tough,” Dr. Sikka said.
Those postgame commitments that can last until sunrise require more than just media duties.
“You lose a whole night’s sleep, and sleep is part of recovery and one of the most important parts. Food, everything we do, treatments, ice baths. All these things, you can’t sleep,” says fellow Russian said Karen Khachanov, the current men’s world number 18, after Medvedev finished at 3.40am at the Australian Open in January.
Emil Ruusuvori walks off the court after losing to Medvedev at the Australian Open. (Anthony Wallace/AFP)
Medvedev endured a long series of matches in Melbourne and eventually finished, but in the final, Medvedev faced Janik Sinner in two sets and, perhaps inevitably, ran out of steam.
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“I definitely don’t think it’s healthy,” women’s world No. 3 Coco Gauff said Sunday. “It’s probably unfair to people who have to play late because it really disrupts your schedule. “For the health and safety of the players, it’s only consistent with the sport to try to avoid these games starting after a certain time. In your best interests, obviously, you can’t control when they’re done.
Current Wimbledon men’s champion Carlos Alcaraz, winner of the U.S. Open that ended at 3 a.m. two years ago, also expressed his displeasure against Sinner; the women’s world No. 9 Ons Jabeur called it “unhealthy”.
But it’s not just about the players. Hosting a tennis tournament involves an entire ecosystem: unpaid ball boys, security staff, umpires and countless other related staff who also have to stay up late.
So do the fans.
Women’s world No. 1 Iga Swiatek expressed sympathy for everyone who has to go to work after a match and said matter-of-factly that the reason she asked not to play a night match was, “I just like to sleep normally.”
In 2020, Gough played a spooky nighttime show in Paris.
Djokovic declined to give his side of the situation, but 17-year-old Russian player Mira Andreeva was less diplomatic.
Her second-round match against Victoria Azarenka started around 10:30 pm on Thursday and didn’t end until after 1 am on Friday. “It’s so frustrating,” said Andreeva, who played on the tiny No. 12 court with few fans in attendance. “No one is watching, and it’s cold. You’re playing and fighting, and no one is there.
Dr. Sikka emphasized that he believed that not only tennis was an outlier, but other sports were as well because they thought the situation was ridiculous. “We looked at the rehab of one of the best athletes in any sport for 20 years, but you would never do that with Tom Brady (football) or LeBron James (basketball) .
It’s hard to argue that this means it makes tennis feel like a novelty rather than a serious sport.
Recognizing the absurdity of these situations, the ATP and WTA have taken steps to try to redress the balance.
Earlier this year, they announced that games would start no later than 11 p.m.
The first overhaul came after Sinner had to withdraw from the Paris Masters in November after winning a tournament that started after midnight and ended around 3am. Two years ago in Acapulco, Mexico, Alexander Zverev defeated American Jenson Brooksby at 4:55 a.m. in the latest professional tennis match Contest.
Women’s world No. 4 Elena Rybakina revealed on Saturday that she has been having trouble sleeping recently, finishing a match at August’s Rogers Cup before 3 a.m. Rybakina said she was “destroyed” by the experience, from that tournament to the injury the following week in Cincinnati, which forced her to withdraw from her second-round match against Italy’s Jasmine Paolini despite winning the First set.
Rybakina serves in the final match against Daria Kastagina. (Getty Images)
“This is terrible,” Rybakina said shortly afterward. “It’s not easy because they (injuries) aren’t even from tennis. When you go to bed at 5 o’clock in the morning, it’s really hard to recover.
Rybakina also criticized the WTA: “I think it’s a bit unprofessional. The leadership is still somewhat weak at the moment. But hopefully things will change.
The Grand Slams all have their own rules, and despite attempts at reform, the Australian Open is running into the same old problems this year. Tennis Australia hopes matches starting on Sunday will ease the burden on the schedule and hopes to reduce the number of daytime matches from three to two, meaning there will be less chance of late evening matches.
But that didn’t work because tennis matches had become too long and the schedule was no longer fit for purpose.
researcher Competitor Last year’s figures showed that the number of men’s Grand Slam level matches has increased by about 25% over 24 years. At the 2022 U.S. Open, three hours will be almost the average length of a match, not as fresh as before. In this case, a four-and-a-half-hour game like Saturday/Sunday is well within the realm of normality.
A match of similar length in Djokovic’s Australian Open first-round victory over Dino Prizmich meant defending women’s champion Aryna Sabalenka didn’t take to court until after 11.30pm to defend her title. One match – easily beating ATP and WTA deadlines.
Curfews and start time cutoffs seem to be the most obvious solutions. If the tennis world really wants to address the root of the problem, it should seriously consider making the men’s matches in the first few weeks of the Grand Slams best-of-three sets instead of best-of-five sets.
Baseball and cricket are evidence that sports can grow and modernize, even if the Grand Slams can always point to how high the attendance at their events is as evidence that they don’t really need reform.
Tennis players know that complaining about such issues can make them look self-righteous. But they also realize the risks to themselves and the sport come from allowing this to continue.
When Andy Murray spoke out in August, it was seven months after he was initially outraged over a 4am tennis match with Thanasi Kokkinakis in Melbourne. He said: “Usually when players complain about these things you hear, ‘Oh, shut up, get on with it. Use it. Try working nine to five in a warehouse.
It was after 4 a.m. and Murray was on his way to the finish line. (William West/AFP)
“I get it. I know I’m lucky to be able to play tennis. It’s just…tennis is also entertainment. I don’t think it helps the sport that much when everyone leaves because they have to take public transportation back You don’t see that in other sports, so it’s obviously wrong.
In football, global players union FIFpro warned the sport’s world governing body FIFA that players will “take matters into their own hands” if nothing is done to address their increasing workload. It even suggested strike action was possible.
But football, along with other sports like baseball, has already undergone reforms. For example, in the Premier League, if a team plays an away game on the continent on a Wednesday night, it can no longer play at 12:30pm on a Saturday.
The PTPA, led by Djokovic, will continue to make its case to the sport’s governing body, which consists of seven different organizations that have the power to set their own rules with little input from active players.
The morning after last night, and the morning before that, the atmosphere at Roland Garros on Sunday was bleary-eyed.
The excitement of the game has faded, and people are both tired and in disbelief that this is happening again.
On a cold day, there seems no need for an event that is supposed to be full of fun and entertainment to feel so compromised.
never. Until next time.
(Top photo of Novak Djokovic: Emmanuel Dunand/AFP via Getty Images)
