'Don't Want To Be In Their Place': Jabeur Happy To Avoid Late Finish At US Open

Monday, 04 September 2023 at 02:56

byEvita Mueller

Late finishes have been a major talking point this year and the 2023 US Open has seen a fair share of them as well.

Quite a few matches finished after midnight at this year's US Open, with the likes of Novak Djokovic and Daniil Medvedev seeing their matches extend into a new day. It's not something that bothered Djokovic too much, but it does bother some other players.

Elena Rybakina called out the WTA for these late finishes but the US Open doesn't particularly care as they confirmed before the event that they would keep the night shift schedule which sees two matches take place with the earlier one starting at 7 PM local time.

Ons Jabeur largely avoided playing any of those late matches, and she was glad about it. Speaking after her most recent win at the US Open, Jabeur admitted that they are very tough, something that cost Rybakina who wanted to avoid them too, but didn't.

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That's tough, to be honest with you, for the players that play late. I don't want to be in their place, for sure. I'm happy that I'm going back and will try to sleep. It is tough to sleep for me right now because with all the adrenaline of the match, it's never easy to fall asleep right away. Maybe I fall asleep watching them, for sure.

— Jabeur on the late finishes<br>

There are many reasons why late finishes impact players negatively, and you don't need to think hard to understand why. It affects your sleeping schedule, which affects your recovery, and that's always bad news for tennis players.

It's unlikely that we'll see things change because the late-night matches serve only one purpose - maximize profit for the event. Any time there is money involved, people tend to look away or bend the rules, so late finishes are likely to stay unless players keep pushing against it.