Australian Open’s failed schedule experiment — Too-late matches remain

Australian Open’s failed schedule experiment — Too-late matches remain،

  • Matt Walsh, Associate EditorJanuary 19, 2024, 01:14

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      Matt Walsh is a Melbourne-based sports journalist who happily travels anywhere to watch any sport. Not only has he seen the NFL in Dallas, soccer in London, baseball in Arlington and hockey in Boston, but he has covered F1, AFL, Wimbledon and the Australian Open for a number of media outlets .

Melbourne, AUSTRALIA – It was well past 4 a.m. when Andy Murray finally left Margaret Court Arena after a grueling five-hour, five-set battle with Thanasi Kokkinakis at last year's Australian Open.

Instead of celebrating this epic fight for what it was, the public discourse immediately turned to what Murray described as the “farce” of being forced to start his match well after 11 p.m.

“It is not beneficial for [ballkids]”, he said after the victory. “It's not beneficial for the referees, the officials. I don't think it's unbelievable for the fans. This is not good for the players.

“We talk about it all the time. We've talked about it for years. When you start games late and you have conditions like that, these things are going to happen.”

While Australian Open tournament director Craig Tiley said at the time that there would be no immediate changes to the schedule, things have been changed for this year's tournament.

In order to reduce the backlog of first round matches, an additional day of play has been added to the 2024 schedule, the Sunday before the usual Monday start. Having three days for all 128 first-round matches was supposed to be a small change to help reduce the number of late nights at the Australian Open.

“[We] “We are excited to provide a solution to minimize late arrivals while continuing to provide a fair and equitable schedule on the stadium courts,” Tiley said at the time.

But the idea immediately failed.

On the first day of the tournament, world number 2 Aryna Sabalenka's first serve was sent at 11:41 p.m., when most spectators at Rod Laver Arena had already left following Novak Djokovic's epic four-set victory over the teenager Croatian Dino Prizmic.

And on Thursday night there was a sense of déjà vu around Melbourne Park when, like Murray and Kokkinakis last year, men's world number 3 Daniil Medvedev's second-round match didn't start until 11:16 p.m. The reason ? The clash between Elena Rybakina and Anna Blinkova went the distance – with the addition of the longest tie-break in the history of Slam singles. This was after they started an hour after the scheduled time of 7 p.m., due to the late finish of the final day's match.

Of course, nothing can predict that previous consecutive matches will not go the full nine yards, putting pressure on the schedule, but with Sabalenka and Medvedev forced to wait until a few minutes before midnight to start their matches only in the first two. rounds, it's clear that something is still not working.

“What’s the matter, 3:40 in the morning?” Medvedev said after his five-set bout with Emil Ruusuvuori ended around 4 a.m.: “Honestly guys, I wouldn't be here. Thanks for staying. If I was a tennis fan and I came , I'll be at 1 a.m., “Let's go home, we'll watch the end of the match on TV, watch 30 minutes and then go to bed.”

On January 9, just before the start of the Australian Open, the ATP and WTA announced a one-year trial of new scheduling rules for their events, which would further reduce the risk of late starts. As Grand Slams are not ATP or WTA organized events, the Australian Open was not required to comply with this directive.

The new rules state that no play should begin after 11 p.m. without approval from a supervisor; matches that are not on the field at 10:30 p.m. must be moved to another field no later than 11 p.m.; and for night sessions to begin no later than 7:30 p.m., with a recommendation for 6:30 p.m.

On this first night of the Australian Open, Djokovic took four hours and one minute to earn his place in the second round, but with the night sessions at Rod Laver Arena not scheduled to begin until 7 p.m., that meant that Sabalenka couldn't even warm up. before 11 p.m. – against the rules if the tournament was organized by the WTA.

Adding insult to injury on that first night, Melbourne Park's flagship court had sat idle since mid-afternoon after two routine matches, waiting until 7 p.m. – only for the players to then be introduced , warm up and start. play about 20 minutes after that.

The extra day for the first round was a novel idea in theory, but there are more logical steps Australian Open organizers could take to ensure the world's best tennis players don't play so late in the night.

Moving the start time forward in stadiums by one hour would allow the night session to start earlier (of course, provided the day session does not go well beyond) – at the WTA's and the ATP, namely 6:30 p.m.

In fact, the only benefit from this extra day is the net result of the Australian Open. A record for the first day: 87,705 spectators passed through the gates on the opening Sunday – a figure which guarantees a new total attendance record for one of the most supported sporting events in the world.

ESPN commentator John McEnroe predicted this before the tournament.

“First of all, it’s a money grab as far as I’m concerned,” he said of the extra day. “They just found another way to make money. I don't agree with that.”