Eastbourne International Raises Eyebrows With Questionable Scheduling

Scheduling has been one of the most popular topics on the ATP and WTA Tours in 2023, and even the 2023 Eastbourne International didn't escape controversy.

It seemingly all started already at the Australian Open when Andy Murray and Thanasi Kokkinakis were forced to play until 4 AM. As the season continued to the clay-court part, the controversies continued with the Italian Open having their own, and Roland Garros too.

There were always multiple reasons for it. One was the gender disparity. Often, women were not granted as many matches in the premier night slots as men. The other reason was the fact that the scheduling sometimes made it too difficult for fans to watch the matches because they were finishing too late.

Only a couple of days ago, on Sunday, when four final matches were played, the tournament organizers and the ATP and WTA didn't do a good job once again. All four final matches were scheduled within a 90-minute period, making it almost impossible for a tennis fan to watch them all.

As the action moved to Eastbourne with players fine-tuning their form for Wimbledon, the tournament organizers didn't avoid yet another case of a very questionable scheduling at the tournament.

Petra Kvitova and Jelena Ostapenko are the two most recent champions of the Eastbourne International. They are also both former Grand Slam champions, as Kvitova has two Wimbledon titles to her name, while Ostapenko has one from Roland Garros.

Moreover, the Czech player recently won her 31st career title in Berlin, adding herself to the list of candidates to win at Wimbledon. Yet, the tournament organizers scheduled a match between the two former champions of their own event on Court 2.

Often, the former champions are honoured by playing on the biggest court, but not this time. The tournament organizers chose matches between wild card Liam Broady and lucky loser Jan Choinski, or another wild card vs. lucky loser match, between Petra Martic and Katie Boulter.

Once again, scheduling that raised eyebrows and treatment of former champions of the Eastbourne International that probably wasn't expected. It's difficult to say what organizers are really considering when creating schedules.