The crux of the matter with late night matches · tennisnet.com

The fact that matches at the US Open end in the early hours of the morning may bother some players, but it is part of folklore not only in New York City.

Just a reminder: The United States of America is a very large country. And it spans three time zones. Even though the night sessions at the US Open start at 7 p.m. local time in New York City, in Los Angeles, where it starts three hours earlier, the rush hour traffic has only just started. That doesn’t help the TV ratings for the last major of the year.

If one were to follow John McEnroe’s suggestion to start the evening matches an hour earlier to avoid very late finishes, that would mean that the day session in Arthur Ashe Stadium would start at eleven o’clock local time (and not twelve as it has been at present). That would be fine for Los Angeles. But maybe not for New Yorkers. After all, you have to get to the venue from Manhattan, so 7 p.m. is a reasonable time.

Draper and Muchova ensure short day session

“Problems” arise when the day drags on. Not every day session at Ashe is over as quickly as it was yesterday, Wednesday, when the stadium began to empty at 4:15 p.m. local time because Karolina Muchova and Jack Draper were in a hurry. The organizers in New York always take about 90 minutes to change the fans. It could go a little faster. Sometimes it has to, but sometimes it doesn’t.

The stands are full in the evenings despite the absurdly high entrance prices. But not anymore when Qinwen Zheng and Donna Vekic are in the third set of the repeat of the Olympic final at half past one in the morning. It would be no different in a men’s match. Even in the legendary match between Rafael Nadal and Dominic Thiem in 2018, clever fans with a healthy dose of self-confidence were able to sneak their way to the very bottom of the expensive seats in the final phase.

When purchasing, collateral damage is assumed

Before the match between Zheng and Vekic it was said that the women could no longer be sent onto the court for a best-of-three match after 11 p.m., and the reverse was true for the men as well. On the other hand, the crux of the matter with last night matches is that they are part of New York folklore. Collateral damage such as overtired players is accepted.

And with the exception of Wimbledon, where the match days must end by 11 p.m. at the latest, this also applies to the Australian Open and the tournament in Roland-Garros.