It happened again. Of course it is.
Two tennis players battled from midnight until sunrise in front of a crowd of fans, with a group of teenagers chasing the ball around four in the morning.
Last year, Andy Murray dueled with Thanasi Kokkinakis until the night sky started to light up around 4am.From Thursday to Friday, it’s Russia’s Daniil Medvedev and Finland’s Emil Ruusuvuori is performing a tennis version of 2am jazz.
“I’m not going to stay,” Medvedev accepted after coming back from two sets down to defeat Rusuvori 3-6, 6-7(1), 6-4, 7-6(1). said in an interview. 6-0. Judging from the scores, Rusuwari decided not to do so, and it’s hard to blame him.
This dynamic would seem ridiculous if it weren’t so routine. The two main tournaments where this happens, the Australian Open and the U.S. Open, seem to view it as a badge of honor rather than a serious risk to the players involved, especially the ones who win, around 6 a.m. Go to bed and then have to come back the next day.
(Kelly Defina/Getty Images)
Medvedev floated around Melbourne Park on Friday afternoon, having a strange sleep and trying to figure out how to prepare for Saturday night’s match against Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime.
“I got up at seven o’clock today for the match and I’m sure that’s when he went to bed,” Medvedev’s close friend and fellow Russian Karen Khachanov said after beating Czech Tomas Machak on Friday. “There should be some restrictions because especially in a best-of-five game, you know the game could go on for five hours and then start at 11 o’clock at night. That’s not normal and not healthy for anyone to be able to prepare for the third round. The next day, get ready for the next game. You lose a full night’s sleep. Sleep is part of recovery and one of the most important parts. Food, everything we do, therapy, ice baths. All those things. Keeps you awake. So how will you feel the next day?”
In recent years, more and more players have said enough is enough.
“Late-night matches not only harm players, but also have a negative impact on fans, caddies, tournament staff and all relevant stakeholders,” said Ayha, executive director of the Professional Tennis Players Association, which co-organizes Novak Djokovic. Mad Nassar said. The organization was founded in 2020 to address issues such as working conditions for the most important people in sport. “It’s not optimal from a health and safety standpoint and, frankly, it’s not fair,” Nassar said.
Pressure from the PTPA and Jannik Sinner’s decision to withdraw from November’s Paris Masters after winning a tournament that started at 12:30 a.m. and ended around 3 a.m. have forced the men’s and women’s tours The ATP and WTA have agreed to ban matches starting after 11pm from next year. Matches scheduled after 10.30pm on courses still in use will be moved to another course, with both tours telling tournament organizers they want night matches to start at 6.30pm rather than 7pm or 7.30pm, with venues No more than two games. Night time schedule.
(Jean Carduff/Getty Images)
However, tennis is tennis, with seven different organizations having the power to set their own rules with little input from active players, and the four most important tournaments – Wimbledon, US Open, Australian Open and French Open Open Tennis – This rule does not apply.
Late night finishes are not an issue at Wimbledon and Roland Garros as Wimbledon has an 11pm curfew and at Roland Garros only one match is scheduled in the evening, but Melbourne and New York do not observe curfews, As a result some of the most exciting games end up taking place in front of hundreds of strong souls.
“It’s a very obvious thing that needs to change,” Andy Murray said last week of late-night starts and finishes and changes to the tour’s rules. “From a player’s perspective, it definitely helps with recovery the next day and things like that. I certainly think for the fans and the tournament, if you don’t finish a game at three or four in the morning, it might look a little bit worse. Be more professional.”
Tennis Australia has made some changes to the event this year, reportedly to avoid late-night starts and finishes. Most notably, it schedules just two afternoon games on the home court instead of three, reducing the likelihood of late starts for evening games.
It extends the first round from two days to three days, providing more space for scheduling the first 128 singles matches. This doesn’t have much of an impact on the late start as evening matches still start at 7pm and tennis matches are longer than before as there is more depth, more athleticism and scoring so matches, matches and matches lasts longer.
On opening night, after a four-hour battle between Novak Djokovic and Dino Prizmich, defending women’s champion Aryna Sabalenka took to the court at 11:30 p.m. .
It should be noted that Tennis Australia officials did so deliberately, and a series of events resulted in Thursday’s match starting and finishing late.
There were two unexpected spells of rain in the early afternoon, the first of which delayed the match at Rod Laver Arena as no rain was forecast and the roof was open. Iga Swiatek usually makes it as smooth as attending a Taylor Swift concert, but her showdown with Danielle Collins lasted more than three Hour.
(Robert Prange/Getty Images)
Then Carlos Alcaraz’s victory over Lorenzo Sonego lasted nearly three and a half hours. With action at Rod Laver Arena not starting until noon, the long afternoon delayed the 7pm start compared to the 11am start at other venues. The first evening match that followed, between Elena Rybakina and Anna Blinkova, lasted nearly three hours and featured a deciding set The final score was 22-20, which was the longest deciding game in Grand Slam history.
Medvedev stood in the tunnel for half an hour waiting for the match to end. He finally appeared in court around 11:30 p.m. Another performance venue about 250 meters away from Rod Laver, although smaller, had been open for nearly two hours. After four hours and five sets, Medvedev advanced to the third round.
The average Australian Open takes about nine hours of tennis for two men’s matches and two women’s matches. The operation against Rod Laver lasted for nearly 14 hours from Thursday into Friday morning.
On Friday afternoon, in the dim light of the day, Tennis Australia officials touted an additional benefit to the late start. They had been following social media and saw that there were many fans in Europe and the United States, and given the time difference of two hours, they could spend most of their workday enjoying Medvedev’s victory.
The third-ranked player in the world just had to play an all-nighter.
(Top photo: Anthony Wallace/AFP via Getty Images)
