Tennis night matches are a great idea. They mean fans can watch in prime time — in person or on TV — rather than stuffing games into working hours, and they tend to generate a livelier, indeed rowdier atmosphere, especially on the big games.
Sometimes, as per Andy Murray’s epic clash with Thanasi Kokkinakis, it’s downright electric.
But the scheduling of night matches can get out of hand, and Thursday night (or should we say, Friday morning) was a prime example. The titanic battle began at 10.20pm and finished at 4.05am, robbing most local tennis fans of watching one of the all-time greatest Australian Open clashes.
Players tolerate night matches and a few late starts — they know it’s good for the game to maximise the TV audience, and some delays are inevitable at grand slams. But Thursday night’s madness broke them.
“Why are we playing at 3am?” Murray yelled early in the fourth set as he put on a comeback for the ages. He said what we were all thinking (if we were still awake).
Later, Murray told reporters the scheduling must change, arguing it benefits nobody — not players, fans or tournament staff. “It ends in a bit of a farce,” he said.
Andy Murray and Thanasi Kokkinakis.Credit:Eddie Jim, AP
The Brit had also come up against a harsh rule limiting players to one toilet break per match, telling the chair umpire: “It’s so disrespectful that the tournament has us out here until three, four o’clock in the morning, and we’re not allowed to go and take a piss.”
On this one, Murray may have made a rod for his own back a couple of years ago. The ATP Tour cracked down on toilet breaks in late 2021 after some players suggested they were being misused. Murray complained about Stefanos Tsitsipas spending too much time off court during a five-set first-round marathon at the US Open.
“Fact of the day. It takes Stefanos Tsitipas twice as long to go the bathroom as it takes Jeff Bazos [sic] to fly into space. Interesting,” Murray tweeted at the time.
Still, there has to be some flexibility. The two men played for the best part of six hours. It was 3am. Conditions were cool on Thursday but this being a Melbourne summer it could have easily been up to 30 degrees. Let the man use the bathroom.
The five hour and 45 minute match on Margaret Court Arena finished at 4.05am local time.Credit:Getty
You would think the intense reaction from players would force organisers at Tennis Australia — who were contacted for comment — to reconsider their approach to late-night matches.
But judging by chief executive and tournament director Craig Tiley’s remarks on Friday morning, you shouldn’t hold your breath.
“At this point, there’s no need to alter the schedule,” he told Nine, the owner of this masthead.
“We will always look at it when we do the [tournament] debrief. [But] we’ve got to fit those matches in the 14 days, so you don’t have many options.”
Andy Murray celebrates an incredible victory.Credit:Getty
He’s right, in a way: late matches happen every year, the dogs bark, and the caravan moves on. Last night didn’t even break an Australian Open record. These days we look back and laugh about the tournament’s latest finishing match of all time, Lleyton Hewitt’s 2008 defeat of Marcos Baghdatis, that concluded at 4.34am.
Everyone remembers the statistic. But who actually remembers the match? A few reporters who were paid to stay up and watch it. But normal fans, with jobs to go to the next day? Unlikely.
The truth is the Australian Open — known as the “happy slam” because the players love it — has a reputation for crazily late games, and not necessarily a good one.
Yes, we can grin and bear it as organisers insist we should — but who does it serve?
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