Oz Open’s late show not a hit with players

MUMBAI: Between Andy Murray finishing his second-round match at the Australian Open and returning to Melbourne Park for a training session, there was a gap of less than eight hours.

The issue here isn’t how early he checked in again, but how late he’d checked out.

The clock had ticked past 4 am on Friday when Murray completed his epic five-set turnaround against Australian Thanasi Kokkinakis, a five-hour-45minute tussle that kicked off at 10.20 pm on Thursday.

The issue here isn’t how long the match lasted, but how late it began. In modern tennis where the length of contests have been directly proportional to the frequency of baseline exchanges, late-night finishes are increasingly becoming a trend. More so at Grand Slams, with three of the four having separate night sessions. At the 2022 US Open, the five-set quarter-final between Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner finished at 2.50 am. A few months prior to that at Roland Garros, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal came together at the net after their quarter-final at 1.15 am, a time they both agreed was too late. In an ATP tournament in Acapulco last year, Alexander Zverev and Jenson Brooksby played the last point at 4:54 am.

Late night/early morning finishes continue to keep players awake in the season-opening Slam Down Under. On Friday one of the most important and underrated protocols in recovery. Everything is linked.”

“His team will have to do a phenomenal job to give him what is required to recover for the next match,” Ramji added.

That’s where the after-effects of the all-nighter could well spill over into the next round and beyond, impacting the quality of both the player and the contest. For the 35-year-old Murray who has already spent more than 10 hours on court for his two matches, that is a realistic risk against Roberto Bautista Agut on Saturday. “It can affect the players going into the next round and at this stage, at such a high level, that stuff is really important, especially for someone like Andy who needs time to recover and physically feel right for the next round,” Jessica Pegula, the women’s third seed who is part of the WTA Players’ Council, said.

Murray agreed, saying it is neither good for players nor fans. “If my child was a ball kid for a tournament, they’re coming home at five in the morning, as a parent, I’m snapping at that. It’s not beneficial for them. It’s not beneficial for the umpires, the officials.” And yet, these late finishes keep coming. That’s primarily because broadcasters fancy the prime time, and the Grand Slam organisers their two-match night sessions on show courts. “If you just put one match at night and there’s an injury, you don’t have anything for fans or broadcasters,” Craig Tiley, the Australian Open tournament director, said.