Tiley defends Murray’s epic 4am finish
Australian Open chief Craig Tiley insisted yesterday there was “no need” to alter scheduling at the tournament despite stinging criticism after the second latest match finish at a Grand Slam.
Veteran Andy Murray battled through a five-set epic against home hope Thanasi Kokkinakis which ended at 4.05am yesterday to reach the third round, calling the early hours conclusion “a bit of a farce”.
“I don’t know who it’s beneficial for. A match like that, we come here after the match, and that’s what the discussion is,” the 35-year-old Briton said after the five hours and 45 minutes spectacle, the longest of his career.
“Rather than it being, like, ‘epic Murray-Kokkinakis match’, it ends in a bit of a farce.”
Incredibly, Murray was spotted back at Melbourne Park less than eight hours after the match, with Kokkinakis taking to Instagram to pay tribute.
“You’re a warrior Andy Murray and a honour to share the court with you,” he said.
The latest finish in the Open era was also at the Australian Open, in 2008 when Lleyton Hewitt outlasted Marcos Baghdatis in a third-round clash that ended at 4.34am.
Tennis great Martina Navratilova said “no other sport does this”.
But Tiley said it was part and parcel of the opening Grand Slam of the year, whose scheduling this year has been disrupted by intense heat and rain, and it did not happen often.
“You would expect from 7pm to 12pm [the evening session] in that five-hour window, you would get two matches,” he told Channel Nine.
“We also have to protect the matches. If you just put one match at night and there’s an injury, you don’t have anything for fans or broadcasters.
“At this point there is no need to alter the schedule. We always look at it when we do the debrief like we do every year, we’ve had long matches before, at this point we’ve got to fit the matches into the 14 days so you don’t have many options.”