Following an almost four-hour semifinal encounter between Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz in Madrid, Alexander Zverev and Stefanos Tsitsipas began their match before midnight, as the German criticized the tournament's scheduling.
When a tournament begins, matches usually begin early in the morning so that all of the matches can be completed within the day. However, matches in the later stages of most competitions, including the 2022 Madrid Open, normally start later because there are fewer matches to be played and organizers typically want to attract as large crowd as possible.
If the matches take too long, though, certain players may be forced to start late, as Alexander Zverev discovered in his semifinal encounter against Stefanos Tsitsipas. The young German voiced his disagreement with the scheduling and current world number 1, Novak Djokovic showed him support at a recent press conference, when he said:
"You cannot end your semifinal match at 1:00 AM and play the final the following day. I understand that they want to sell more tickets by scheduling a night session on Saturday, but it may cause problems. The organizers should talk to players before making this kind of decisions. When I was the President of the Player's Council several years ago, I tried to solve this issue. But still, nothing changed."
After the 2022 Madrid Open, Zverev said: “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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