More and more players are speaking out against late matches however, the US Open doesn't care as they'll keep the night matches.
This year, a couple of bad late finishes prompted several players to speak out against the practice. It's pretty well known why it happens, and the players understand it, but it becomes pretty much unbearable if something like a rain delay occurs on top of it.
We saw Elena Rybakina blast the WTA for allowing such a thing after experiencing a double-late finish at the Canadian Open. It directly impacted her performance, causing her to struggle the next day and lose to Samsonova.
She's not the only one who spoke out against it. Iga Swiatek asked not to play the night shift at Roland Garros, for example, and even veterans like Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic had things to say as leading voices in the sport.
The upcoming US Open has night matches; the earlier one starts at 19:00 local time, with another one coming after that. It's not uncommon to see that second one stretch to midnight or even beyond; however, tournament director Stacey Allaster confirmed that the matches aren't going anywhere.
At the moment, we are staying the course with two night matches. We will continue to evaluate it.
When pressed about the topic, the tournament director said that they evaluated different options but ultimately settled that this was the best thing. Allaster sold it as something for the fans, which could be true considering New York's notorious traffic; however, it's not the best for players.
Late-night matches were heavily discussed and reviewed after the 2022 US Open. We looked at starting the evening session earlier, instead of at 6pm, but it's not really a possibility because it's hard for New Yorkers to get here even at 7pm. We talked about one match at night, but we felt that's not fair to our fans.
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