Australian Open champ Aryna Sabalenka wants guaranteed 7pm night starts

Late-night finishes continue to be the scourge of the Australian Open and a defending champ wants officials to make a change.

The clock ticks close to 1:30am at Melbourne Park after Italian Jannik Sinner’s victory. Picture: David Gray / AFP

Defending Australian Open champ Aryna Sabalenka has called for a guaranteed earlier start to night sessions as scheduling issues continue to plague the tournament.

Italian Jannik Sinner, who played until 1am on Wednesday to secure a semi-final showdown with 10-time champion Novak Djokovic, said he’d be “trying to sleep as much as possible” to recover in time.

A daytime Djokovic quarter-final, which went four sets as he defeated American Taylor Fritz, pushed the night-time schedule more than two hours beyond its original start time, with an on-court interview conducted by Nick Kyrgios delaying things further.
That sparked a flurry of conversations about Sabalenka possibly shifting her clash with Barbora Krejcikova, which the Belarusian said could have happened if the Djokovic match went to five sets.

It didn’t, but the world No.2 would like more certainty around start times for night matches, which will be the norm at tournaments around the world in 2024, with new rules around when matches can start to come into play.

“I mean, of course it would be much better to start at 7.00, but you cannot control other matches,” Sabalenka said.

Belarus’ Aryna Sabalenka started her quarter-final after 9pm. Picture: Anthony Wallace / AFP

“I mean, there was the possibility that one of our matches will be moved, but we just decided to see how the Novak and Fritz match will go, if it’s gonna be too long, then we kind of, like, agreed for the possibility to be moved. But Novak won third and fourth sets, so we just went on court as normal.

“I’m happy that it wasn’t that long match and we were able to play on the Rod Laver Arena. I think for the quarterfinals match it’s important to be played on such a big stadium.”

Sinner said he spent time before his quarter-final against Russian Andrey Rublev not knowing where it would be played before Sabalenka’s quick take-down of her opponent allowed them on court.

The Italian was able to win in straight sets, in less than three hours, avoiding a ridiculous late finish before he takes on Djokovic.

“I was half an hour where we didn’t know exactly where we were gonna play,” he said.

Night session started more than an hour a half ago, why are they doing a full-length interview right now?

The #AusOpen is utterly unserious when it comes to scheduling. https://t.co/QOTGilyl9e

— Ben Rothenberg (@BenRothenberg) January 23, 2024

“It’s, like, anyway a huge pleasure to play quarters in a grand slam so doesn’t really matter the court. Obviously, when you play centre court is more privilege because you can feel it, you know, with the walk-on and everything.

“You play quarters of a grand slam, it doesn’t really matter the time. In my mind I knew if I win I have two days off, which even if you potentially finish very late, you can recover. But in this moment, you don’t watch the clock (smiling).”

Sinner said his post-match recovery prevented him going straight to sleep, but that would be a priority.

“Tomorrow I’m gonna hit half an hour, 45 minutes, really late of the day, just to touch the ball a little bit,” he said,

“Then after, you know, trying to sleep as much as possible, trying to recover. And that’s it.

“I feel quite confident too that my body is gonna recover in the best possible way. I hope for that.”