Australian Open 2024: Tennis Australia ignores pleas for change to late finishes

The Australian Open calls itself the “Happy Slam,” but has consistently ignored calls for change to help its players and fans, proving that it’s more about the bottom line than anything else.

When Novak Djokovic and Taylor Fritz played a 15-minute opening game more than two hours after they were meant to have started, I wonder what the Australian Open schedule makers were thinking?

Perhaps a quick call was made to the four players scheduled to go after them: “Don’t bother coming in just yet, we might be a while.”

This year’s tournament has become a masterclass in how to fail upwards.

Tell the world you’re the “Happy Slam”, but keep your players frustrated by constant late starts. When they tell you how to fix the problem, simply ignore it.

Celebrate record-breaking crowds, but lock them out of stadiums they paid to access – even as hundreds of empty seats can be seen on the phones they are forced to watch from while queuing to get in.

Perhaps one day, someone will write a book about it.

“How to lose fans and alienate your players: the Australian Open edition.”

Djokovic stepped on the court two hours later than scheduled. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

First, ignore all pleas for a curfew – even after the ATP and WTA implement an 11pm cut-off for tour events.

The curfew works for Wimbledon. Why not Melbourne? Because we have a better solution, apparently. We’ll start the tournament a day earlier. That will fix everything. No more Kokkinakis-Murray 4am finishes.

Except it doesn’t fix anything – apart from the attendance records.

Instead, the reigning women’s champion makes her 2024 debut on the stroke of midnight, in front of a half-empty Rod Laver Arena.

“Thanks for staying guys,” says a subdued Aryna Sabalenka.

But that was just an unlucky coincidence, right? It won’t happen again. Until it does.

Daniil Medvedev and Emil Ruusuvuori don’t finish their third round match until 3:49am.

If not for the Fin’s fifth-set capitulation – likely due to the fact it was almost sunrise – we were on for another 4am finish.

Sabalenka kicked off her Aus Open campaign at close to midnight. (Photo by Paul Crock / AFP)

Medvedev got to bed at 7am. He had to play his fourth round match less than 40 hours later.

The Russian took it all in good humour, but it was obvious he was frustrated. So was everyone else. Even Djokovic.

One single continuous session would fix the issue, the world No. 1 said. It’s what the players want – it’s what they need.

But it won’t happen, he continued, because money comes first. It always has.

After all, a day-night session means the Australian Open can sell the same seat twice in one day. It’s just up to the patron to guess what time that ticket will be available to use.

The early morning finishes just kept piling up. Players leaving at 2am, 3am … after cooldown and media commitments, sometimes even later.

All the while, the ticketed courts often went untouched for hours at a time during the day. You know, that crucial period where they kick out the day session ticket holders to then welcome the night goers?

Then despite the sometimes 2-3 hours between matches on Rod Laver Arena, the “not before 7pm” night session start rarely comes before 7:15pm.

On Tuesday, the tournament organisers finally listened. The scheduled tennis all day long!

Except they didn’t. It just ran so long they couldn’t have the break.

Craig Tiley, CEO of Tennis Australia. (Photo by Daniel Pockett/Getty Images)

It took three hours to split Coco Gauff and Marta Kostyuk. Only the third-longest women’s match of the tournament – and yet long enough to push Djokovic and Fritz back by more than two hours.

Why? Because the world needed some legends doubles to chew on at the start of the day. But not at the actual start of the day. From 12pm.

After an 84-minute opening set between Djokovic and Fritz, that 7pm start was a pipedream.

At least Sabalenka was first-up for the night session on Tuesday, though it may as well have been the second with how late it started.

Spare a thought, then, for Jannik Sinner and Andrey Rublev, who had to follow Sabalenka.

The winner of that match gets to play Djokovic in a semi-final on Friday.

Let’s hope they got some sleep, eventually.