Alexander Zverev was at the center of terrible scheduling at the 2023 Italian Open in Rome, forcing him to play two matches in a short period of time.
Scheduling has always been a topic on both ATP & WTA Tours and while tennis players are doing their best to be as loud as possible about the issue, their voices are seemingly not being heard by the tournament organizers.
Only recently, Iga Swiatek criticized the Madrid Open organizers for their scheduling and only one week later, we have another illogical move, this time surrounding one of the best ATP players, Alexander Zverev.
It was only one year ago when the German voiced his displeasure with the scheduling in Madrid and he is once again facing a difficult situation, this time at the 2023 Italian Open in Rome after finishing his second-round match only on Sunday.
In the second round, the tall German defeated David Goffin from Belgium but because of the rain, the match was pushed back all the way to Sunday night. That wouldn't be a problem if it wasn't the last second-round match to be played with many third-round matches being played much earlier.
After four matches played at the Grand Stand Arena, the two stepped onto the court and after a three-set battle, they finally completed the last second-round match. Yet, already tomorrow Zverev will need to play fourth match at Pietrangeli, taking on J.J. Wolf.
At many ATP events, that wouldn't be a problem, but considering that Wolf, as well as all other Zverev's competitors, had at least two days between their matches, the German is clearly disadvantaged, especially when he will have less than 24 hours between the matches.
Although Zverev's match had to be played on Sunday due to the rain, it could have been placed as one of the earliest matches, to give the winner a chance in the next round. Like this, the former world no. 2 will face even bigger challenge than he would need to, all due to illogical scheduling.
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