Imagine paying several hundred euros, even four figures for a ticket to a final of a Masters 1000 and that the match is totally lackluster because one of the two opponents is in clear physical inferiority, produced mainly because one of the finalists finished his match last night at 1 and some in the morning. Would it bother you? It is what we have in some other tournament of this category, due to poor planning of schedules and calendar, which produces a clear competitive disadvantage and ultimately harms the show. This is what happened last weekend Madrid and what can also happen this week in Roma.
In mixed tournaments, as is the case of the two that we have mentioned, it is necessary to tread very finely with the timetable and calendar of the event so as not to produce advantages for any of the tennis players who reach the semifinals or final. The intention of putting on a double session, day and night, causes what we saw last Saturday in Madrid to take place, with one finalist (Alcaraz) who finished his match at 7 in the afternoon, and the other (Zverev) after 1 in the morning, since, in between, they put on the women’s final.
The same thing happens with Rome. The Italian tournament organizes its semi-final Saturday with a men’s match to open the day, followed by two women’s, to finish with the second men’s semifinal. This last meeting, if the day goes long with several three-set matches, could end around 12 in the morning, as has happened in the past, causing a situation similar to that experienced in Madrid last week with the finalists of the male frame.
The ATP needs to sit down with the tournaments involved and organize the schedule issue
If we want our sport to be as fair as possible and for such a final not to tarnish the quality of a tournament, the ATP needs to deal with the matter and organize the schedules of these tournaments differently. It has already happened in the past, that similar situations caused important changes, such as reducing from 5 to the best of 3 sets in the finals of these tournaments or establishing tiebreaks in the fifth sets of the Grand Slams.
In Spain, Zverev’s words did not have much meaning since the beneficiary, in this case, was Alcaraz, but imagine what would have been said if the one who finished at 1 in the morning was Alcaraz and the next day he could not even move. “The day before yesterday, I went to sleep at 4 in the morning. Yesterday at 5:30. Playing a final like this against someone like Alcaraz is difficult. Everything moves in my eyes, I had no coordination. In Acapulco I also played until 5 a week. I’m a bit tired of this. The programming must be done better”, commented the German.
In the same direction as Sascha were the words the other day of Novak Djokovic, who urged that this be changed in the future. “You cannot finish a semifinal at 1 in the morning and play the final the next day. I understand that you want to sell more tickets with a night session, but this can cause problems. The organizers should talk to the players before making these kinds of decisions. When I was the president of the Council I already tried to solve this problem, but nothing has changed”, Nole declared in Rome.
It should be mentioned, for those who do not know, that although a game ends at 1 in the morning, the player’s work does not end there. He still has to go through the press, shower, do the post-match treatment with the physio, go to the hotel and have dinner. All this can revolve around two hours, not counting how difficult it is to lower the adrenaline after a match and how difficult it is to fall asleep in those cases. The athletes themselves recognize that it is tremendously difficult to sleep if you finish your game very late.
It is likely that this will end up changing and a fairer calendar will be established for the tennis players of both teams. What is important is that these changes occur as soon as possible. Just as Wimbledon, Roland Garros and the Australian Open have moved and have adjusted their days and calendars differently to make everything more even, it is time for some Masters 1000 to take an example and do the same. Everyone, tennis players and spectators, will appreciate it.
