The Australian Open schedule has once again come under fire after the opening night at Melbourne Park.
The tournament has become famous for late-night finishes, prompting organisers to introduce a raft of changes to 2024, including adding an extra day by starting on Sunday and running for 15 days instead of the usual 14.
Day sessions on Rod Laver and Margaret Court will feature a minimum of two matches, rather than three as previously, to limit the potential for late finishes.
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Night sessions will continue to feature a minimum of two matches.
But the changes did nothing to prevent another late finish on Sunday night.
After the day session wrapped up in super quick time thanks to comfortable wins by fourth seed Jannik Sinner and Greek star Maria Sakkari, it was expected to be a similar story for the night session when defending champion Novak Djokovic took to the court against a teenage qualifier.
But 18-year-old Dino Prizmic had other ideas and pushed 10-time champion Djokovic to the absolute limit.
Djokovic needed over four hours to book his spot in the second round — the longest first-round match of his entire career.
That resulted in defending champion Aryna Sabalenka serving the first point of her match against German Ella Seidel at 11.41pm local time in front of a half-full Rod Laver Arena.
Luckily, Sabalenka only needed 53 minutes to wrap up the 6-0 6-1 victory and avoid a super late finish.
Prominent tennis journalist Ben Rothenberg said the women’s match should always go before the men, which would allow the second match to almost always start at a reasonable time.
“Amid the wild ride of Djokovic-Prizmic, sparing a thought for defending #AusOpen champion Aryna Sabalenka, who is going to walk out to an almost empty Rod Laver Arena some time around midnight. The best-of-three match should always go first in a night session,” he tweeted.
“This is pretty ridiculous,” a fan added. “Sabalenka is the reigning Aus open womens champion (from 2023) and now they’re going to take the court around midnight – on a Sunday night. And if that match is a hot contest, it could go past 2am. 3 setters should always go first.”
The first night fail made a mockery of tournament director Craig Tiley’s comments ahead of the event.
“We’ve listened to feedback from the players and fans and are excited to deliver a solution to minimise late finishes while continuing to provide a fair and equitable schedule on the stadium courts,” he said when announcing the tournament will run an extra day.
“The additional day will achieve this, benefiting scheduling for fans and players alike. The first round will now be played over three days instead of two, also giving fans an extra day of unbelievable tennis, entertainment, food and family fun.”
The WTA and ATP had last week announced last week new scheduling regulations that recommend a start time for the night session of 6.30pm.
Starting in January, as a one-year trial, no matches will go on court after 11pm unless approved by the tours. However as a grand slam tournament the Open is exempt.
The night session at Melbourne Park starts at 7pm with the second match following the first on to court, regardless of the time.
There could be another potential late finish on Monday with Aussie gun Alex de Minaur beginning his campaign against former world No.3 Milos Raonic.
If that match goes the distance then the blockbuster between two-time champion Naomi Osaka and 16th seed Caroline Garcia could go well beyond midnight.
– With AAP
