Records are meant to be broken! But players hate breaking certain records. Two years ago, Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner‘s five-set thriller in the QF of the US Open lasted for more than 5 hours, ending at 2:50 am! Such late-night finishes can be extremely grueling for the players. What do the experts say about this? 

This year, Alexander Zverev and Tomas Martin Etcheverry nearly broke Alcaraz and Sinner’s record. They shook hands at 2:35 am at Louis Armstrong Stadium after their R3 match. Even Aryna Sabalenka’s match against Ekaterina Alexandrova ended at around 1:48 am. Recently, Qinwen Zheng’s match against Donna Vekic ended at 2:15 am!

American tennis legend Pam Shriver has recently demanded a change in timings, demanding an early time slot for matches scheduled in the Arthur Ashe Stadium. Shriver wants fans to enjoy prime-time tennis before they go to their bed. “Pro tennis we are crazy to have some of our most important matches being played in the middle of the night. @usopen starts on Ashe Stadium at 12pm plus takes too long between sessions. Let’s trade 12 am-2 am match times for 10 am-12 pm tennis on Ashe. Let’s study how to speed up matches,” she tweeted.

In tennis, matches can get over within 90 minutes, or they can go beyond five hours. The longest match record in tennis was played between John Isner and Nicholas Mahut at the 2010 Wimbledon Championships (11 hours and 5 minutes). Getting proper recovery and a resting period after every match also plays a big role in their performances. Several players have addressed this issue throughout the year.

During the 2024 French Open, Coco Gauff said that late-night finishes are “not healthy.” Novak Djokovic felt “things could’ve been handled differently.” Carlos Alcaraz admitted, “I don’t like late-night sessions,” sharing how there is a big time gap between their last point and the real-time to go to their beds. Players have to undergo recovery sessions and also attend press conferences after the match. Even the WTA number 1, Iga Swiatek, stated that “It’s not easy” to be in this type of situation.

After facing a lot of complaints from the players in the last few years, US Open organizers introduced a new policy this season. They stated that a match can be shifted to a different court if it cannot begin by 11:15 pm. They believed that it would ensure that matches were finished within reasonable hours and would also minimize the disruptions to the schedules. However, even after these late-night policies, players are still facing 2 am finishes. 

“I don’t need any more records…” – Players react to late-night finishes at the US Open 

Most sports have a strict policy of ending matches by midnight. For example, NFL prime-time games begin no later than 8:30 pm. Even NBA matches conclude within the stipulated time, causing no extensions beyond midnight. However, in tennis, the governing bodies have decided that 2:00 am finishes are quite normal. What do the players think of this and the new rules that have been implemented at this year’s US Open?

Shortly after playing a marathon match at the 2024 US Open, we heard Alexander Zverev say, “In Acapulco, I played until 4:55, so I know I have that record. I don’t need any more records of late finishes … I’m good.” However, he refrained from blaming the tournament organizers for these types of situations.

After her current R3 match, Aryna Sabalenka revealed that she would probably have to skip treatment and all the recovery procedures to get to bed by 4 am. Even Alexei Popyrin admitted he didn’t expect to be asleep until 4 or 4:30 am. Seeing these contact struggles with late-night finishes, Andy Murray recently came up with a tweet stating, “The tennis scheduling situation is a total mess. It looks so amateurish having matches going on at 2,3 4 am (thumbs down). Sort it out.”

Addressing the new rule that has been brought into this tournament to battle out late-night finishes, Sabalenka said, “I was really surprised, like one hour and 20 minutes to change the stadium?“

She further added that she’d always prefer to play in the big stadium than get shifted to Grandstand, which is relatively smaller. The new policy has not helped players attain proper recovery and rest despite constant discourse. Will the situation become easier anytime soon?