He cited that exact time afterwards as when the weight of what he was doing hit him, he said his legs felt like concrete. But he pushed through, great win!!!
I wonder if there's been any protest from players about these late starts/finishes? That kind of disruption to a sleep schedule in the middle of a tournament has got to effect their play going forward--even for younger players. And it's not like the earlier matches were so unusually long--the first ended in 3 sets, the second in 4.
I don’t think it’s so different from baseball players playing a night game one day and a day game the next. Here the players get a day off in between (if they’re not playing doubles too) and I think the tournament tries to schedule them later in the day for the next match, presumably Alcaraz/Sinner will be a night match tomorrow if rain doesn’t push things farther back.
Happens frequently at the Oz open as well. I was there when Hewitt finished around 430am...had to teach a clinic at 8am to clients. They didnt get my best effort. In the past it could really only happen at the US/Oz opens because of the 3/5 set format and night sessions, which were only recently added at Roland Garros.
Ah, thanks. I don't watch a ton (just follow news) so was unaware it's a thing elsewhere. Seems really rough on the athletes, but with matches lasting possibly so long probably unavoidable in the format.
Yup. and if memory serves me correctly it used to be even more of a problem at the US Open, as they would schedule 3 matches for the day session on Ashe. If you had 3 tight matches it would often result in the night session starting later than scheduled.
Wimbledon has no night session and the French just started in 2021, that’s a big reason why the two hardcourt slams are my faves.
+1. All I knew is I was rooting for it to go 3 but cest la vie. Really hoping coco somehow takes out caro Garcia (whom I also really like) quickly so I can stay up for some of kgyrios khachanov
Well it can be. Coco did get this far, and did make the Finals in Paris; although as we all know Clay is almost a different Sport.
You mean best of 5. Oh god that could get really ugly. I am more concerned they will at some point move the Mens to Best of 3 which would suck
I think he's just screaming to his coaches. He knows he fucked up a huge opportunity.
This made me check James Blake, who made the US Open QFs in 2005 and 2006 (and the AO QF in 2008), but never a slam semi.
I did a deep dive on the 3-vs-5 divide a few years ago, and as best I can tell, the difference persists primarily because of TV schedules: if they had all the women play best-of-5 for all the rounds, they might not be able to get all the early-round matches in in their time window, but in particular they wouldnt' be able to get as many matches into their TV windows.
