And look how many people moan at Wimbledon's 11pm cut off, calling it archaic. There is no answer that is going to be 100% the right one at all tournaments.

-- Edited by emmsie69 on Wednesday 24th of January 2024 07:37:22 AM

Thanks Jon/CD for your valid comments. Was interested to note that the day quarterfinalists DID start at at 12 local time today, with Medvedev not before 1.30. Yesterday was 1/NB 2.30, which suggests that they wanted Djokovic to start as late as possible. So I think yesterday's criticism was valid even if you accept the status quo of night sessions.

Am not sure midnight as a preferred cut-off has ever been realistic with a minimum of 5 sets, although this year feels particularly late (bad). Would be really interested for someone to publish research on performance of players in next match following late finishes to see the impact objectively.

The genius of the tennis scoring system though - Zverev up 2 sets and almost at the line, maybe minutes from winning. Alcaraz comes back to win the 3rd and we are looking at a couple of hours more!!

Best scoring system in any sport, IMO 

-- Edited by JonH comes home on Wednesday 24th of January 2024 01:57:30 PM

Coup Droit wrote:

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JonH comes home wrote:

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Just to get clear the facts of the matter - doesnt change peoples views
On late finishes, but worth noting whats actually happened

there have only been two days out of 10 so far where play has finished by midnight, and Daniil Medvedev and Emil Ruusuvuori played until 3.39am in their second-round clash.

Tuesday's delay meant women's defending champion Aryna Sabalenka did not start her match, which had been due to begin at 7pm, until 9.10pm, and Jannik Sinner and Andrey Rublev were not hitting their first balls until after 10.40pm.

and the players have views also

Fritz said: 'It just screws up your whole clock. I pray for those guys. I get it, matches go long some days. Like, today in particular, my match was long, the match before us was really long.

'But there's got to be something they can do where people aren't playing until 2, 3am, because I don't think people really fully understand how much time we actually have to spend doing stuff after we finish playing. If you finish at 2am, there is no chance I'm going to sleep until 5, 6am.'

Wimbledon is unique in having an 11pm curfew, but play at the other grand slams has no cut-off point, and, with the average length of matches increasing markedly in recent years, what was rare in now commonplace.

Djokovic said: 'We've seen in the past some late finishes. And I know for the crowds and for the tournament in a way it's kind of exciting to see a 4am finish, a 3am finish. I was part of some of those. But it's definitely not fun for us.

-- Edited by JonH comes home on Wednesday 24th of January 2024 12:11:00 AM

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 But why did four out of four players choose not to have a guaranteed earlier finish then, by switching court?

It's all very well them saying one thing and then doing the exact opposite

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 I'm not sure that's fair. Grand Slams are special, and playing on the prime show court is especially special. You don't want to give up your opportunity at playing in the biggest arenas just because the organisers couldn't run a bath. I don't see any conflict between saying "we want to finish earlier" but also saying "we don't want to miss our opportunity to play on Centre Court".

JonH comes home wrote:

---

christ wrote:

---

Coup Droit wrote:

---

JonH comes home wrote:

---

Just to get clear the facts of the matter - doesnt change peoples views
On late finishes, but worth noting whats actually happened

there have only been two days out of 10 so far where play has finished by midnight, and Daniil Medvedev and Emil Ruusuvuori played until 3.39am in their second-round clash.

Tuesday's delay meant women's defending champion Aryna Sabalenka did not start her match, which had been due to begin at 7pm, until 9.10pm, and Jannik Sinner and Andrey Rublev were not hitting their first balls until after 10.40pm.

and the players have views also

Fritz said: 'It just screws up your whole clock. I pray for those guys. I get it, matches go long some days. Like, today in particular, my match was long, the match before us was really long.

'But there's got to be something they can do where people aren't playing until 2, 3am, because I don't think people really fully understand how much time we actually have to spend doing stuff after we finish playing. If you finish at 2am, there is no chance I'm going to sleep until 5, 6am.'

Wimbledon is unique in having an 11pm curfew, but play at the other grand slams has no cut-off point, and, with the average length of matches increasing markedly in recent years, what was rare in now commonplace.

Djokovic said: 'We've seen in the past some late finishes. And I know for the crowds and for the tournament in a way it's kind of exciting to see a 4am finish, a 3am finish. I was part of some of those. But it's definitely not fun for us.

-- Edited by JonH comes home on Wednesday 24th of January 2024 12:11:00 AM

---

 But why did four out of four players choose not to have a guaranteed earlier finish then, by switching court?

It's all very well them saying one thing and then doing the exact opposite

---

 I'm not sure that's fair. Grand Slams are special, and playing on the prime show court is especially special. You don't want to give up your opportunity at playing in the biggest arenas just because the organisers couldn't run a bath. I don't see any conflict between saying "we want to finish earlier" but also saying "we don't want to miss our opportunity to play on Centre Court".

---

 And are they really given the choice? Presumably the incentive to organisers to have play at midnight plus is all about TV audiences in Europe/USA etc? It wont be locals watching it at 2 am! So they will want to keep it on the main showcourt as far as possible, I would imagine? 

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In at least one case recently they were: apparently the players of a scheduled late match were offered the opportunity to play on Ms Court's court, but declined.

Sinner beats Djokovic in 4 sets, well done that man! Djoko apparently never had a break point all match, first time in his grand slam career.