The ATP and the WTA announced this Tuesday a much-requested measure in professional tennis, the end of late-night matches that pushed the tennis players’ physique to the limit. There will be no more early morning matches thanks to a new package of measures created specifically for this which will also be released in this edition of the Australian Open. 2024.
The new schedule rules have come to light with just five days left before the start of the first big event of the year, a package of four rules specifically designed to avoid any setbacks or calendar mismatches:
No more than five matches will be played per court in a day (the day will start at 11:00 a.m. and there will be three duels in the daytime session and two in the night session). After 11:00 p.m. no match will start (unless approved by the supervisors). of the tournament). A match without a court available at 10:30 p.m. will be changed to a court that is free. The night session will begin at 7:30 a.m., although the recommendation made to tournaments is to start it an hour earlier if possible.
With these four basic rules, the ATP and the WTA try to reduce as much as possible the possibility of continuing a problem that throughout the history of tennis has affected players and also tournaments.
Proof of this is the duel at the 2023 Paris Masters 1,000 between Jannik Sinner and Mackenzie McDonald, which ended at three in the morning, a match after which the Italian decided to withdraw from the tournament as he had to play the next round just a few hours later with hardly any time. to rest at the hotel.
The regulations, being tested this year 2024, will begin to be implemented at the Australian Open, a tournament in which some duels have reached close to five in the morning -local time- at their end.
2024-01-09 21:02:49
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