‘Dangerous’ midnight marathon
Britain’s Johanna Konta has voiced her concerns about tennis players toiling away into the early hours after her Australian Open match with Spain’s Garbine Muguruza started at 12.30am and finished after 3am yesterday (AEDT).
Muguruza finally won what is believed to be the latest starting match in Australian Open history, edging Konta 6-4 6-7 (3) 7-5 in a marathon that concluded at 3.12am in Melbourne.
‘‘I don’t agree with athletes having to physically exert themselves in the wee hours of the morning,’’ Konta told BBC Sport. ‘‘I don’t think it is healthy. In fact, it is quite dangerous.
‘‘However, Garbine and I were both in the same position and, with the circumstances, we really put on a great match and it’s just a shame more people couldn’t enjoy it.’’
A few hundred spectators dotted the stands at Margaret Court Arena, which has a seating capacity of 7500. One woman took up three seats to herself for a snooze.
‘‘I seriously can’t believe there’s people watching us at 3.15,’’ two-time major champion Muguruza said in an on-court interview, then joked: ‘‘Like, who cares?’’
The second-round match was delayed because the day session ran longer than expected – Venus Williams needed three sets to win her match there – and the first contest of the night session was a men’s match that lasted five sets.
Konta said there was discussion of moving her match to Court 3, but the seagulls that dot the tournament grounds had left their, um, mark there.
According to an Australian Open spokeswoman, Muruguzu and Konta were given the option of having Court 3 cleaned; it should have taken 15 minutes.
But the players heard there was rain in the forecast, so decided to stay put, because Margaret Court Arena has a roof and Court 3 does not.
The tournament said the previous latest start on record in Melbourne was 11.59pm for a women’s match between Elise Mertens and Daria Gavrilova a year ago.
The record for the latest finish? That’s 4.34am for a 2008 men’s match between Lleyton Hewitt and Marcos Baghdatis.
Muguruza, a former world No 1 who is seeded 18th, managed to convert the only two service breaks of the match, including in the last game.
Asked afterward what she planned to do, Muguruza had a simple plan: breakfast.
The biggest beneficiary of the timing of it all might be Timea Bacsinszky, the Swiss player who faces Muguruza today for a spot in the fourth round.
Bacsinszky’s victory on Thursday ended more than 10 hours earlier than Muguruza’s win did.
‘‘I will recover as much as I can, because it was a tough match,’’ said Muguruza, who won the French Open in 2016 and Wimbledon in 2017 but has never been past the quarterfinals at the Australian Open.
‘‘Tomorrow is a day off, but I have to be [focused]. The tournament is not over.’’
– Ap/stuff