Australian Open boss Craig Tiley says more late finishes are inevitable despite extra day

The blame for a near-midnight start to the defending champion;s opening Australian match was put on the qualifier who challenged Novak Djokovic.

Australian Open Tournament Director Craig Tiley (Photo by Daniel Pockett/Getty Images)

The ability of a teenage Croatian qualifier to take a set off defending Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic was passed off as a reason for a later than hoped finish to the first day which tournament boss Craig Tiley said was “inevitable” going forward.

Women’s world No.2, and defending champion at Melbourne Park, Aryna Sabalenka didn’t start her first match of the tournament until 11:41pm on centre court on Sunday night.

Her powerful display ensured a finish just after 12:30am Monday morning, with the match against Germany's Ella Seidel lasting just an hour.

But it was enough to spark furious debate over the worth of adding an extra day to the tournament, which was done to avoid the sort of farcical late night finishes which have plagued the tournament previously.

In 2008 a match between Lleyton Hewitt and Marcos Baghdatis famously concluded at 4:33am and as recently as last year Sir Andy Murray and Australian Thanasi Kokkinakis played until 4:05am in a five-set epic.

The defending AO women’s champ played in front of plenty of empty seats. Photo by Anthony WALLACE / AFP

Before the Australian Open began The WTA and ATP Tours made a joint announcement this month limiting the number of matches that can be scheduled on a court in an evening session and banning contests beginning after 11pm in the interests of player welfare.

But the Open opted against embracing that edict, and Tiley said the fact 18-0year-old Dino Prizmic took a set off Djokovic in their clash was beyond their expectation and pushed the second match back.

But Tiler also made it clear late finishes in matches with no set time period for completion were unavoidable at a grand slam, where the men play best of five sets. .

“We finished at 12:35am and we have taken the edge off having the possibility of late finishes,” Tiley told Australia’s Channel Nine on Monday.

“Nobody could predict that Novak would have gone over four hours to play a qualifier. No one would have predicted that putting a schedule on.

“It’s going to happen and it will happen again, it could happen tonight or tomorrow night.”

The late night drama came into focus in 2023 when Andy Murray outlasted Thanasi Kokkinakis in a match which ended after 4am.

Murray called it “a farce” at the time but was cautiously optimistic the Australian Open’s rule changes may make a difference.

After her opening round win during the day on Monday, US star Coco Gauff said she would always want to go on first at night, but sympathised with officials.

“Yeah, usually I always would, if I’m going to play night, I always would like to play the first night match, because usually typically the women’s, our longest match is three hours usually,” she said.

“I know Australian Open has done a three-start thing to help with the night matches. It’s like a tough thing because, yes, at night is probably our prime time and we can optimize viewers, but also we have to protect the players’ health. It’s like a fine line.

“I get both sides of it. I’m going to always go for the players’ side.”

Former world number one John McEnroe, who is a commentator at the Open, described the addition of a 15th day as a “money grab” with more than 87,000 fans attending the Melbourne Park precinct on Sunday.