Australian Open organisers seem to have realized a harsh lesson, shifting the beginning time of the primary match on Rod Laver Arena ahead by an hour.
The first centre courtroom match on Wednesday will start at 12pm, a day after a legends doubles encounter, that includes the likes of long-retired pair Mark Philippoussis and Marcos Baghdatis, inexplicably kicked off proceedings.
The subsequent match, a quarter-final between US Open champion Coco Gauff and Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk, did not begin till 1pm and ended up lasting greater than three hours.
That epic battle threw the whole schedule into chaos, with three additional singles matches nonetheless to be performed on Rod Laver Arena on Tuesday.
Defending champion Aryna Sabalenka’s quarter-final towards Czech ninth seed Barbora Krejcikova did not get underway till 9.09 pm, greater than two hours after the night time session might have began.
Fortunately for organisers, the red-hot Sabalenka powered into one other semi-final by finishing her victory in simply 71 minutes.
Italian fourth seed Jannik Sinner took to the courtroom towards Russian Andrey Rublev at 10.42 pm, with the straight-sets match not ending till 1.21 pm.
It was nowhere near the well-known Lleyton Hewitt and Marcos Baghdatis 4.33 am end at Melbourne Park in 2008, and even final 12 months’s 4.05 am mark by Andy Murray and Thanasi Kokkinakis.
The scheduling made a mockery of event director Craig Tiley’s rationalization for including an additional day to this 12 months’s Australian Open for the primary time.
“We’ve listened to feedback from the players and fans and are excited to deliver a solution to minimise late finishes while continuing to provide a fair and equitable schedule on the stadium courts,” Tiley proclaimed in October.
Unseeded Czech teenager Linda Noskova and Ukraine qualifier Dayana Yastremska’s quarter-final would be the first match on Wednesday, beginning at 12pm.
Third seed Daniil Medvedev has a possibility to qualify for his third semi-final at Melbourne Park when he faces Hungary’s Hubert Hurkacz in last-eight conflict.
The night time session will characteristic unseeded Russian Anna Kalinskaya up towards Chinese darkish horse Qinwen Zheng, whereas younger Spanish star Carlos Alcarav will intention to advance to the final 4 at Melbourne Park for the primary time when he faces German sixth seed Alexander Zverev.
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
