After Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz played their semifinal match for almost four hours, Alexander Zverev and Stefanos Tsitsipas started their shortly before the midnight as the German slammed scheduling of the tournament.
When a tournament starts, matches tend to start early in the morning, so there's enough time for all the matches to be played throughout the day. However, in the later stages of majority of the events, including the 2022 Madrid Open, matches usually start later as there are fewer to be played and usually organisers want to attract as large crowd as possible. However, if the matches are too long, some players can start really late, exactly as Alexander Zverev experienced it in his semifinal match against Stefanos Tsitsipas.
After Carlos Alcaraz defeated Novak Djokovic in 3 hours and 40 minutes, ladies still played their final match in Madrid, including the celebration with trophy afterwards. Therefore, the second semifinal between Alexander Zverev and Stefanos Tsitsipas started really late, and the German, who later lost in the final, couldn't properly recover and after the tournament, he went on to say:
“I have to say is that the ATP’s job was an absolute disgrace this week. Two days ago I went to bed at 4:00, 4:30 a.m. Yesterday I went to bed at 5:20 a.m. If any normal person goes to bed one night at 4:00 a.m., the next night at 5:00 a.m., it will be a tough time just to be awake for them. And for me to play a final against Carlos Alcaraz, who to me is the best player in the world right now, in a Masters 1000 event, the next day, it is difficult.”
“I had no coordination on my serve, I had no coordination on my groundstrokes. I missed two overheads that were super easy because I see the ball, and everything is moving in my eyes. I had absolutely no chance today. I had absolutely no chance of playing my level. This is not the first time this is happening. I mean, in Acapulco I played until 5:00 a.m. I played until 5:00 a.m. I was awake until 8:30 a.m. This is happening on a weekly basis, and to be honest, I’m a little bit tired of it.”
“Here the chances are being taken away from me and at the end of the day everybody forgets about those things. Nobody talks about it. Everybody says, Yeah, it was a bad match, I made double faults, I didn’t play well and all of that. But look at what is happening the days before. Look at what is actually happening behind the scenes, as well. It’s not quite fair, I think.”
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