Former British tennis ace Tim Henman has criticized the Australian Open for its bizarre scheduling of matches. As players and fans suffer due to late finishes to night matches that extend to as far as early morning, Henman feels the organizers must look into the matter.
After Jannik Sinner‘s quarterfinal match against Andrey Rublev finished around 1:20 local time in Melbourne, Henman flagged the need to make some changes. The Briton said that the match could have finished much later had it gone to five sets instead of finishing in three sets.
The Briton had Daniil Medvedev‘s second-round match against Emil Ruusuvouri as an example. As that match finished around 3:45 local time, both players as well as the fans looked all worked up. Citing these issues, Henman suggested that the authorities should consider starting the day session a bit earlier. The night session can also start a bit early.
The day session could have started earlier, and then we wouldn’t have had a delay for the start of the night session. With those straight-set matches, the tournament and the players were lucky to finish at 1:20 am. We could have finished at 2:20 or 3:20, even more, if those matches go long. Tim Henman said to Eurosport.
Tim Henman suggests changing playing conditions to speed up matches
Tim Henman also talked about changing the playing conditions to speed up the matches. The former British ace suggests that the balls and the court can be speeded up so that there are fewer long rallies. Henman also talked about the earlier days when the matches used to be finished quickly.
Do we need to really think about speeding the balls and the courts up so the rallies aren’t quite so long? I reference one of the semi-finals between Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras. Five sets in under three hours; that just doesn’t happen [now]. It’s now an hour a set. Tim Henman suggested.
The Briton also highlighted how the claims that starting the tournament on Sunday would help the night sessions were rubbish. Henman looked frustrated at the late finishes and claimed it was bad for everyone from the players to the ball kids, line judges, and the fans.
With the finishes we’ve had; Medvedev finishing at 03:45am, this, something has to be done. We can’t carry on like this and say, ‘Well, the matches are taking a long time’, because it’s no good for anyone Tim Henman pointed out.
As the tournament has entered the final stage with only the semifinals and finals left to be played, it is to be seen how the organizers manage the scheduling because these big games are expected to run for longer hours with top players competing against each other. For example, the quarterfinal match between Daniil Medvedev and Hubert Hurkacz took four hours to finish.
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