The late-night matches at Grand Slams are attracting criticism that keeps growing louder with Andy Murray seconding the opposition to the uneasy scheduling at the events suggesting, saying that the matches going for the 4pm bracket are “not good for anyone” and “doesn’t help the sport”.
The night hour matches at majors that go the distance are brutal and Murray had one back in January at Australian Open where he was left unimpressed in the R2 clash against home hop Thanasi Kokkinakis that closed at 4:05am in the morning.
“Amazingly people stayed until the end, and I really appreciate people doing that and creating an atmosphere for us. Some people obviously need to work the following day and everything.”
The trend continued at Parisian clay and on Wimbledon grass courts with a lot of matches being affected by the controversial timings. Understandably, players have expressed their displeasure and frustration over the tainted scheduling by the organizers but that often attracts flak from fans over social media who feel ATP and WTA stars are privileged enough to face the situation and “get on with it”.
Organizers at New York major have announced that they will not entertain any scheduling complaints and the tournament will undergo as planned but the 3-time Grand Slam Champion feels this is not good for the sport as he also responded to the entitled fans.
“I think it’s just generally not good for anyone. Obviously, when the players complain about that stuff, you sort of hear, ‘oh, shut up and get on with it’ or ‘try working in a warehouse from 9 to 5’,” he said.
“It’s like, yeah, I get that. I do get that. I know I’m fortunate to be playing tennis, but playing at four in the morning – tennis is also partly entertainment – I don’t think it helps the sport that much when you know everyone’s leaving because they have to go and get public transport home and you finish a match like that in front of 10% of the crowd.
“You don’t see it in other sports. It’s clearly wrong. And the reason for it is purely financial, it’s not because the people that are running the events believe that it’s good for the players, they don’t. It’s a financial reason for why they’re doing it.”
The management at SW19 have also been urged to schedule play earlier on Center and No. 1 courts next year but appears difficult that scheduling status quo will shows any flexibility to the demands in 2024. The Brit feels it is about finding the right balance for all stakeholders involved in the sport.
“If they [Grand Slams] want to start [night sessions] at 7.30, if they want to play two women’s matches, that time’s fine; if they want to play a men’s match, then I think you can only play one match, unless you’re going to start sooner,” he said.
“Wimbledon, they obviously need to change the start times of the matches and move it sooner, stop having the 20-minute breaks between the matches.
“It might still happen from time to time but you’re kind of doing the best that you can to avoid it. And I think that becomes fair on the players because you can’t really expect someone to recover if you finish a match at 4.30 in the morning,” said the former ATP #1.