Australian Open 2024: Novak Djokovic denies having greater advantage after scheduling farce

Despite his next opponent starting his quarter-final at close to 11pm on Tuesday night, Novak Djokovic was not buying into any talk that he would have the advantage in his semi-final.

Novak Djokovic has rubbished claims he will have a competitive advantage in his semi-final on Friday due to his opponent having to play well beyond midnight on Tuesday due to a scheduling farce that rocked the Australian Open.

Djokovic’s quarterfinal clash with Taylor Fritz did not begin until 4.43pm – more than two hours beyond its scheduled start time – after the earlier women’s quarterfinal between Coco Gauff and Marta Kostyuk ran for more than three hours.

Gauff and Kostyuk did not take the court until after 1pm, as Rod Laver Arena was used for a legends doubles exhibition match beforehand.

Djokovic toughed it out in hot conditions to reach the final four. (Photo by WILLIAM WEST / AFP)

The late start for the men’s match meant the night session did not start until almost 9.15pm. Mercifully, Aryna Sabalenka wrapped up her match against Barbora Krejcikova in just over an hour, leaving Jannik Sinner and Andrey Rublev to hit the court before 11pm.

Organisers were spared a comical past-midnight start only because Djokovic and Sabalenka were able to wrap up their matches in four and two sets respectively.

“What kind of advantage will I have?” Djokovic said.

“We have two days. It’s not much of an advantage that I see there. We are playing semi-finals on Friday, so plenty of time for whoever wins that match tonight to recover.

“The good thing about the quarterfinalists on the men’s section is we have two days’ (break). So I think that’s plenty of time to get a good sleep and recover.”

Djokovic agreed that the tournament scheduling had “become a hot topic” in recent days in the wake of Daniil Medvedev and Emil Ruusuvuori’s third-round match which finished at 3.49am.

The world No. 1 was asked for his thoughts on the scheduling after that match and doubled down on his stance following the victory over Fritz.

“It’s really up to grand slams and our respective tours to think about the ways to accommodate both male and female players in a proper way so we have no late finishes,” Djokovic said.

“We know that there are two sessions, right? So if you are scheduling two matches starting at 12pm with men playing best-of-five, if it goes three, four hours, takes for them I think whatever, 45 minutes to clean the stadium … it takes a lot of time, you know.

“Coco Gauff played a long match today. I played a long match today. Then you have the night session starting two hours after the time they were scheduled.

“Obviously not great also for Sinner and Rublev. I’m sure that they are not happy … they could even start at midnight.

“We’ve seen in the past some late finishes. And I know for the crowds for the tournament in a way it’s kind of exciting to see a 4am finish, a 3am finish. I was part of some of those, you know. But it’s definitely not fun for us.”

Despite the scheduling issues, Djokovic was full of praise for Craig Tiley. (Photo by Kelly Defina/Getty Images)

When first quizzed on the scheduling topic, Djokovic suggested a single continuous session running throughout the day – rather than the day-night format currently used by the Australian Open – would help the issue.

But he said the players understood that the commercialisation of grand slam tennis would ultimately be the priority.

“Look, there are different ways to address this. Maybe scheduling less matches on centre court, (or) doing it in one session, which is most likely not going to happen, because every session carries a lot of economical value for them,” Djokovic said.

“And TV broadcasting, there’s a lot of elements that are in play you know. TV broadcasting pays a lot of money to the tournament … so in the end of the day, they are the ones drawing the line and saying … we want to see this player at that session et cetera.

“Even though of course Craig Tiley, who is a great person and I respect him a lot, and he’s always trying to do his best for the players. He’s tournament director and he’s obviously trying always to communicate with players and take their opinions and consideration.

“But … TV broadcasting channels have the biggest power. We know that. Which is not unusual, because they are the ones that are giving us the stage, the platform to reach out to millions of people around the world, which is great for us.”

Originally published as Australian Open 2024: Novak Djokovic denies having greater advantage after scheduling farce