Starting next year, the Australian Open for tennis professionals in Melbourne will be held on 15 days instead of the previous 14 days. Tournament director Craig Tiley announced this on Tuesday.
The organizers of what is traditionally the first Grand Slam tournament of a new season, which is scheduled for January 14th to 28th in 2024, hope that the start 24 hours earlier will smooth out the entire schedule and avoid night-time matches.
“We have listened to feedback from players and fans and are presenting a solution that minimizes very late decisions,” said Tiley: “The players and fans benefit from the extra day when scheduling games.”
At this year’s Australian Open, duels that lasted late into the night caused discontent among the participants and the spectators. A match between the British Andy Murray and the local Australian Thanasi Kokkinakis only ended at 4:05 a.m. after 5:45 hours of play.
According to information provided by the tournament organizers, data evaluations would have generally shown a longer playing time and would have been taken into account in the decision to introduce the additional tournament day.
2023-10-03 05:35:00
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