What time is it?
Muguruza wins historically late contest
Breakfast at Melbourne? Australian Open match almostmade it.
MELBOURNE, Australia — Better late than never, right?
Garbine Muguruza finally won what is believed to be the latest-starting match in Australian Open history, edging Johanna Konta 6-4, 67 (3), 7-5 in a late-night marathon that began at 12:30 a.m. and ended at 3:12 local time.
“Not ideal. Not ideal for anyone. I don’t think it’s ideal for anyone to do any physical activity when it’s bedtime,” Konta said with a chuckle. “Both of us were in the same boat, so both of us had to deal with the same challenge.”
A few hundred spectators stayed to watch at Margaret Court Arena, capacity: 7,500.
One woman took three seats for a bit of a snooze.
“I seriously can’t believe there’s people watching us at 3:15,” two-time major champion Muguruza said, then joked: “Like, who cares?”
The second-round match was delayed because the day session ran long — Venus Williams needed three sets to win her match — and the first contest of the night session was a men’s match that lasted five sets.
Konta said there was discussion of moving to Court 3, but that seagulls had left their, um, mark there.
According to an Australian Open spokeswoman, Muruguzu and Konta were given the option of having Court 3 cleaned. But they heard there was rain in the forecast and stayed because Margaret Court Arena has a roof. Court 3 does not.
The tournament said the previous latest start on record in Melbourne was 11:59 p.m., for a match last year between Elise Mertens and Daria Gavrilova.
The latest finish? That’s 4:34 a.m., for a 2008 match between Lleyton Hewitt and Marcos Baghdatis.
“It was actually a very good match,” Konta said. “It’s unfortunate more people couldn’t enjoy it during the day.”
Muguruza, a former No. 1ranked player who is seeded 18th, converted the only two service breaks of the match, including in the last game.
The biggest beneficiary might wind up being Timea Bacsinszky, the Swiss player who will face Spain’s Muguruza on Saturday for a spot in the fourth round.
“I will recover as much as I can, because it was a tough match,” said Muguruza, who won the 2016 French Open and Wimbledon in 2017. She has never made the Australian Open semifinals. “Tomorrow is a day off, but I have to be [focused]. The tournament is not over.”