Novak Djokovic saw off Taylor Fritz 7-6, 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 in a match that was heavily debated due to the scheduling of the matter at the Australian Open which saw after Coco Gauff had played super late, the World No.1 backing up the schedule with Aryna Sabalenka and Rublev and Sinner having to all play still towards the early hours of the morning.
Many also criticised the move to put a Nick Kyrgios interview with Droll if when the schedule was already behind nearly two hours and it even saw Sabalenka and Krejcikova asked if they would play on the Margaret Court Arena to help alleviate the pressure which they refused. Djokovic takes a more sympathetic view saying that while in an ideal world, it would be all one session and would start earlier they have to appease parties.
In particular TV broadcasters who often dictate the schedule and means that players like Djokovic even in routine matches always play on the show courts and in this case, Djokovic faced Fritz in that slot so that the US market could have both the World No.1 and America’s Number One in prime time.
“What kind of advantage will I have? We have two days. It’s not much of an advantage that I see there. We are playing semifinals on Friday, so plenty of time for whoever wins that match tonight to recover. Scheduling has become a hot topic, so to say,” Djokovic said.
“We talked about it, I think few matches ago I talked about it on the press conference, and I couldn’t give a really clear answer to that, because, I mean, it’s really up to Grand Slams and our respective tours to think about the ways to accommodate both male and female players in a proper way so we have no late finishes.
“I think ATP came up with this rule change, but that’s on ATP Tour. Grand Slams are not part of the ATP Tour. They have their separate rules and regulations that obviously are independent from our tours.
“We know that there are two sessions, right? So if you are scheduling two matches starting at 12:00 with men playing best-of-five, if it goes three, four hours, takes for them I think, whatever, 45 minutes to clean the stadium, bringing new fans for the night session, so it takes a lot of time, you know.
“Coco Gauff played a long match today.
I played a very long match today. Then you have the night session starting two hours after they were scheduled, after the time they were scheduled. So not ideal, obviously not great also for Sinner and Rublev. I’m sure that they are not happy with a potential start of whatever.
“Yeah, we’ve seen in the past some late finishes. And I know for the crowds and for the tournament in a way it’s kind of exciting to see a 4:00am finish, a 3:00am finish. I was part of some of those, you know. But it’s definitely not fun for us, you know.
“The good thing about the quarter-finalist on the men’s section is we have two days. So I think that’s plenty of time to get a good sleep and recover. But yeah, I get your point. Look, there are different ways to address this.
“Maybe scheduling less matches on the centre court, doing it in one session, which is most likely not going to happen, because every session carries a lot of economical value for them. So of course they are going to communicate it and try it that way and try to get as many people for different sessions.
“And TV broadcasting, there’s a lot of elements that are in play. TV broadcasting pays a lot of money to the tournament and sponsors the tournament. So obviously, you know, in the end of the day, they are the ones drawing the line and saying, we want to see this player at that session or et cetera, et cetera.
“Even though of course Craig Tiley here, who is a great person, and I respect him a lot, and he’s always trying to do his best for the players. He’s a tournament director and he’s obviously trying always to communicate with players and take their opinions and consideration.
“But, you know, TV broadcasting channels have the biggest power. We know that.
Which is not unusual because they are the ones that are giving us the stage, as well, the platform to reach out to millions of people around the world, which is great for us. Yeah, it’s hard to say what the best scenario is in this case.”
