AFP
The US Open will stick with its policy of placing two night matches on the main Arthur Ashe court despite concerns from players about finishes in the early hours.
Matches at Flushing Meadows often finish in the early hours and last year’s tournament saw a match between Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner finish at 2:50 am after a five-hour 15-minute contest.
Venus Williams has said she would like to see the second night match removed from the schedule calling it “brutal.”
The issue of late finishes returned to the forefront last week after world number one Iga Swiatek joined Elena Rybakina in blasting the scheduling which wrecked the late rounds of the WTA Montreal Open.
But Stacey Allaster, US Open Tournament Director, told reporters on Thursday that while discussions had taken place about the night schedule, following last year’s tournament, no changes were planned.
“Without question, late night matches were heavily discussed and reviewed after the 2022 US Open.” said Allaster who said they had looked at starting earlier and removing the second match before deciding against the change.
“I think one of the challenges that we just have as a reality of tennis, we are not defined by a start and an end time. So that unpredictability of a match, sometimes we can have a short match, or we can have that long five-hour match. So at the moment, we’re staying the course with two night matches. We’ll continue to evaluate it,” she said.
“I think until we were to dramatically change a feature that we offer our fans, we’ll experience this late night moment here,” she said.
Allaster said that players and fans enjoyed the special atmosphere of playing under the lights on the 23,700 capacity stadium, the largest in the sport.
“One thing we do know is that in New York City, when we talk to the athletes, there’s nothing like a night match in Arthur Ashe.
“They are some of the most historic and memorable moments for athletes,” she said.
Lew Sherr, CEO and Executive Director of the US Tennis Association, said that the back-to-back night games were a significant element of the appeal of the event.
“It’s part of the excitement. In some respects, it’s something that our fans love, the city that never sleeps. But having said that, we have an obligation to make sure that the athletes, their health is put forward. But we also know that New York fans are energized by night matches,” he said.
The issue is by no means limited to the US Open — last week Rybakina’s quarter-final in Montreal against Daria Kasatkina did not end until around 3am.
Having won that encounter, the Kazakh had nothing left for her Sunday semi which she lost in three sets to Liudmila Samsonova.
“Maybe we should focus more on what is healthy for players because we have to compete every week,” Swiatek said on Monday.
“The Tour is so intense with travel .. that it would be nice in the future to focus on players – especially next year when there will be more and more mandatory tournaments and longer tournaments.”
“During the clay season, in Rome and Madrid, I played four matches that finished close to or after midnight,” Swiatek said.
“I understand we have to adjust to broadcasters and everything, but I also asked the WTA for some data to see if people are watching matches that start past 10 p.m.,” she said.
