Boris Becker ripped into Roland Garros organizers after Novak Djokovic's historic win in the third round, which finished in the early hours of Sunday morning.
On Saturday, Djokovic's third-round match against Lorenzo Musetti kicked off at least a couple of hours after the initial start time communicated on the order of play.
That is because the tournament worked around the clock to establish a means to complete the suspended matches on the outside courts. So, the two main courts with a roof, Court Philippe-Chatrier and Court Suzanne Lenglen, saw a makeup schedule.
Djokovic, who was scheduled to play on Chatrier, was the main star attraction for the night session commencing at 8:15 pm local time. But because Grigor Dimitrov's match with Zizou Bergs was moved to the main court during the evening, the top seed was made to wait for almost two hours.
The three-time champion took to the court at almost 11 p.m. local time for his match against the talented Musetti, which required five sets. It was a marathon, lasting four hours and 29 minutes. When Djokovic completed his on-court interview, it was past 3 a.m.
The match set the record for the latest finish at Roland Garros since the tournament instituted night sessions on the main court in 2020. However, the organizers have been strongly criticized by tennis pundits, including Djokovic's former coach, Boris Becker.
"Mark, you make very good point! Think it’s mad and frankly unprofessional from the organisers to allow matches past 1am …which other sport has to deal with something similar? Maybe boxing 🥊 but they have 1 fight every 6 month!"
The German former ATP player was responding to Mark Petchey's tweet on X (formerly Twitter). The British commentator opined that if Djokovic went on to win the title from here, it would be his "greatest achievement" because of the emotional and physical toll the match will have on his body.
"If @DjokerNole wins @rolandgarros it will be his greatest achievement ever in a single event. Madness to finish at 3am from a recovery point of view. When a tournament is struggling this much to catch up through no fault of its own, they should just call a Monday Final early so this doesn’t happen."
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