The 2023 Wimbledon didn't escape scheduling controversies after rain affected the schedule and Alexander Zverev had something to say about it.
Zverev isn't unfamiliar with scheduling problems as he dealt with a few instances of it. He once finished a match against Jenson Brooksby in Mexico in the literal early hours of the morning playing in the middle of the night.
He also openly spoke about how the scheduling screwed him over at last year's Madrid Open. He was facing Carlos Alcaraz in the final, not even 24 hours after finishing his semi-final match at the ATP 1000 event.
The German's match started at night while Alcaraz's finished many hours before that giving him an unfair advantage in terms of recovery. The backlash from fans and his comments impacted the organizer's decision to have the semi-finals played without any gap this year.
The German talked about the scheduling decisions made at this year's Wimbledon as well though he wasn't the only one that had something to say about it. Plenty of fans and journalists addressed the situation on social media.
Zverev's comments specifically addressed the fact that Jannik Sinner was given a slot on one of the roofed courts as opposed to some other players. Sinner was already in the second round, compared to Zverev who didn't even play his 1st round match at that point and he wasn't the only one.
I don't know whether Jannik has to be put on a court with a roof for a second round match. There were other names who have achieved more in tennis than Jannik. I think they had options there.
Obviously, Zverev is a long-tenured top player who could have been given that spot to finish his 1st round match. Another player he referenced was Matteo Berrettini who also had to finish his 1st round match by the time Sinner played his 2nd round match. After all, the Italian was a finalist at the event so definitely not a 'nobody'.
I like Jannik very much - as a person and as a player. He's an incredible player and will still win a lot. But there were other names in the draw who hadn't played the first round yet. Like Matteo Berrettini who was already in the final here, or me.
A very similar situation occurred in another part of the draw which forced organizers to push back Alcaraz's match by one day because he would have played his 2nd round match before all the players in his part of the draw finished their 1st round matchups.
The aftermath of all of that is that the event is basically up to date as of now after the weather cooperated and the doubles events were pushed back a bit.
0 Comments