‘It’s Not Healthy’ – Novak Djokovic’s Turmoil Prompts Coco Gauff to Join Iga Swiatek in Slamming French Open Scheduling

It has been just hours since Novak Djokovic secured a massive win over Lorenzo Musetti. However, Serb’s recent victory at the Roland Garros has already started creating chaos. While the match extended to five sets played in a duration of 4 hours and 29 minutes hitting 3:08 AM on local time, the top-ranked WTA stars didn’t seem to be happy with the late-night schedule dynamics.

In a recent press conference, Coco Gauff came forward to highlight the health issues that these late-night matches could bring upon. “I definitely think it’s not healthy. It may be not fair for those who have to play late because it does ruin your schedule. I’ve been lucky I haven’t been put in a super late finish yet,” she said, mentioning how it could be troublesome.

Along with that, the young American also mentioned how this 3:00 AM ending could easily extend to 6 or even 7 AM. “But really, 3 a.m., then you have press and then you have to shower, eat, and then a lot of times people do treatments, so that’s probably not going to bed until 5 at the earliest, maybe 6, and even 7 a.m,” she added. And it wasn’t just Coco Gauff who saw Novak Djokovic’s late-night match as an issue.

Iga Swaitek also reflected similar thoughts in her conversation with the press. “It’s not easy to play and then it’s not like we’re going to fall asleep one hour after the match. Usually it takes us, like, four hours to even chill, and you need to do recovery, media. It’s not like the work ends when the match point,” the Pole said, pressing on the terrible playing conditions that a player could face during late hours.

Both Coco Gauff and Iga Swiatek’s statements highlighted a fear of not facing a similar situation themselves. While both of them have extended their runs to the quarter-finals, it is evident that they would surely not want to find themselves in such a terrible schedule. But what if they do? Even the WTA stars clearly mentioned that they’d be helpless if it happened.

Gauff and Swiatek clueless about what would happen if they were to face a Novak Djokovic-like fate

Besides directly opposing the practice of late-night matches, both Iga Swaitek and Coco Gauff had no response for a fix. In the same press conference where the WTA world no.1 despised the timings for Novak Djokovic’s match against the Italian rival, she also seemed to be clueless about her fate if she faced a similar situation.

“It’s not up to us. We need to accept anything that is going to come to us,” the Pole said, feeling helpless and bound by the regulations set by the authorities. Besides her, the former US Open champion Coco Gauff also submitted a similar response. “What can be done?” Gauff said, apparently not being able to think what could be done if she found herself in a similar late-night showdown.

Djokovic’s recent showdown against Lorenzo Musetti might have earned him enough confidence but induced a sense of fear in other players on tour. As the grand slam event continues to move ahead, it is yet to be seen if there will be more such scheduling issues.