Australian Open chief Craig Tiley is adamant the match schedule will not be altered to keep away from late finishes regardless of five-time finalist Andy Murray labelling his marathon in opposition to Thanasi Kokkinakis a “farce”.
Murray and Kokkinakis did not hit Margaret Court Arena till 10.22pm on Thursday and after the Scottish veteran mounted an unbelievable five-set comeback victory, they did not end till 4.05am Friday.
The pair needed to wait till Belinda Bencic wrapped up her match in opposition to Claire Liu, which took an hour and 51 minutes, to get on court docket.
“I don’t know who it’s beneficial for,” Murray mentioned of the late end.
“Rather than the discussion being about an epic Murray-Kokkinakis match it ends in a bit of a farce.
“If I had a ball child who’s coming dwelling at 5am I’m snapping at that; it isn’t useful for them, the umpires, the officers, I do not suppose it is superb for the followers or good for gamers.”
Murray was also denied a bathroom break at 3am and aired his frustrations with the chair umpire when he levelled proceedings at two-sets all.
“It’s so disrespectful that the match has us out right here till three, 4 o’ clock within the morning and we’re not allowed to go and take a piss. It’s a joke,” he said.
But Tiley ruled out any adjustments mid-tournament, either via a curfew or by shuffling matches around.
“At this level, there isn’t any want to change the schedule,” he instructed the Nine Network.
“We will all the time take a look at it after we do the (post-tournament) debrief, like we do yearly.
“But at this point … we’ve got to fit those matches in the 14 days so you don’t have many options.
“Over the final three days, we have had excessive warmth, over 5 breaks of rain, we have had chilly … we have had three late nights with scheduling to try to meet up with matches.”
Three minutes before Murray and Kokkinakis started play, the Scot’s older brother, doubles champion Jamie Murray, queried why two matches were held on court back-to-back after 7pm.
“Time for tennis to maneuver to just one match on the night time classes at grand slams,” Jamie Murray wrote on Twitter.
“This is the perfect consequence for ALL singles gamers.
“We can’t continue to have players compete into the wee hours of the morning. Rubbish for everyone involved – players/fans/event staff etc.”
But Tiley steered the Murray scenario was an anomaly.
“You are going to have an out-of-the-box situation like last night where it goes extra-long, unexpectedly,” he mentioned.
“There’s always one and it’s always hard to schedule the entire event around the possibility that it’s going to happen one time.
“You’ve additionally bought to guard the matches. If you simply put one match at night time and there was an harm, you do not have something for the followers or the broadcasters.”
