Aryna Sabalenka‘s late-night thrill on the court brought with it its own set of challenges. Even though she found victory and made it to the quarter-final round of the Italian Open, many tennis fans expressed their dissatisfaction on social media sites after the Italian Open, believing the scheduling choices to be absurd, looking at what happened with the Round 16 clash.

Sabalenka’s recent match against Svitolina‘s match went into three exhausting sets, ending around midnight with very few fans still in the stands. This late-night show was one of many scheduling errors that occurred at the Italian Open. A lot of WTA and ATP matches are scheduled simultaneously in such a way that it might divide the crowd according to their favorites.

Even though it’s a 12-day event, the schedule is a true mess, leaving not only the fans rushing but also leaving less time for the players to play one match after the other. The seemingly random scheduling choices resulted in a busy schedule, with matches like Penko vs. Badosa, Swiatek vs. Kerber, and Gauff vs. Badosa all taking place at the same time.

Among the men, Medvedev, Rune, and Hurkacz were vying for the same attention at the same moment. Sakkari vs. Azarenka and Sabalenka’s matchup with Svitolina added to the mayhem. In addition to depriving fans of seeing their favorite players, these schedule difficulties caused matches to conclude late into the night.

Concerns about the remaining days of the tournament are evident from the schedules of Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, which feature very few enticing games. The fans are ultimately the ones who lose out in this situation, as they feel let down by the tournament’s haphazard schedule. Recently, a lot of fans came forward to talk about the Italian Open scheduling.

After Aryna Sabalenka’s late-night clash, tennis fans raise concerns

As soon as the tennis commentator shared the chaotic scheduling on his Twitter handle, a lot of tennis fans flooded the comment sections with their different takes on the situation. This is not the first time the scheduling has created a problem; last year, the WTA Finals at Cancun was a disaster around how the matches were scheduled. A fan talked about how the degrading format is making these “tournaments very boring.”

On the other hand, a fan highlighted how it’s becoming a regular scheduling problem. He wrote, “Every year it’s the same. Why do they struggle so bad with it.” Similar to how Alexander Zverev expressed concern about the best players having fewer opportunities to rest after winning recently expanded Masters tournaments.

A fan also emphasized how the scheduling problem keeps on happening again and again, but “nobody tried to prevent it from happening again.” Even though the event is a 12-day-long event, players also get an opportunity to be a part of the main draw. The chaos of having a lot of tennis matches at the same time in a location has left tennis fans wondering what’s happening.

On the other hand, a fan clearly agreed, with the thought of the senseless scheduling, and tagged the tournament as, “awful!” 

Even though the pattern of the masters’ event has changed for the better, another fan talked about how scheduling should also go hand in hand with the event. But at the end of the day, “There’s nothing** tennis can’t do! ** = nothing horrible”

Having enough time to rest and recover in between games is just as important during a tournament as pre-tournament practice for players to hone their tactics and abilities. But the unrelenting speed of games, along with conflicting schedules and late-night ends, has raised questions about how it affects player health and performance. The ongoing discussion makes one stop and consider how crucial careful scheduling is to preserving the sustainability and integrity of professional tennis competitions. What are your opinions on this?