Andy Murray has hit out at Grand Slam organizers over their scheduling of late-night matches by accusing them of prioritizing financial gain ahead of player health.
Earlier this month the US Open confirmed that they would be keeping their order of play the same despite a series of matches at last year’s tournament going into the early hours. Carlos Alcaraz’s five-set win over Jannik Sinner didn’t end until 2:50 a.m. Tournament director Stacey Allaster said the issue was ‘heavily discussed and reviewed‘ but it was decided that no changes would be made at the moment.
However, Murray argues that playing matches beyond midnight is bad for the sport. At the Australian Open, his clash with Australian Thanassi Kokkinakis didn’t conclude until 4 a.m. Leaving Murray with insufficient time to recover in time for his next match.
“I think it’s just generally not good for anyone,” Tennis Majors quoted Murray as saying to reporters in New York on Saturday. “Obviously when the players complain about that stuff, you sort of hear, ‘oh, shut up and get on with it’ or ‘try working in a warehouse from 9 to 5’. It’s like, yeah, I get that. I do get that. I know I’m fortunate to be playing tennis, but playing at four in the morning – tennis is also partly entertainment – I don’t think it helps the sport that much when you know everyone’s leaving because they have to go and get public transport home and you finish a match like that in front of 10% of the crowd.
“You don’t see it in other sports. It’s clearly wrong. And the reason for it is purely financial, it’s not because the people that are running the events believe that it’s good for the players, they don’t. It’s a financial reason for why they’re doing it.”
The 36-year-old is not the first player to express scheduling concerns. At the Canadian Open, former Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina said she was left feeling ‘destroyed’ due to playing late-night matches. Meanwhile, women’s world No.1 Iga Swiatek has previously urged the sport to ‘focus more on what’s healthy for players.’
Murray’s calls for change also include his home event of Wimbledon which he has won on two previous occasions. The All England Club is the only major to have a night-time curfew.
“If they (slams) want to start (night sessions) at 7.30, if they want to play two women’s matches, that time’s fine; if they want to play a men’s match, then I think you can only play one match, unless you’re going to start sooner,” he continued.
“Wimbledon, they obviously need to change the start times of the matches and move it sooner, stop having the 20-minute breaks between the matches.
“It might still happen from time to time but you’re kind of doing the best that you can to avoid it. And I think that becomes fair on the players because you can’t really expect someone to recover if you finish a match at 4.30 in the morning.”
Murray is set to begin his US Open campaign on Tuesday against Frances Corentin Moutet. It will be his 17th main draw appearance at the New York major which he previously won in 2012.
