PARIS.- No party of tennis will begin after 11:00 p.m. to prevent some duels from ending late in the morning: that is one of the measures with immediate effect that were jointly announced on Tuesday by the bodies that govern the professional circuits of that sport, ATP y WTA.
Among the other measuresmatches will be moved to another court if they cannot start before 10:30 p.m. when initially scheduled.. Night sessions must begin no later than 7:30 p.m. ATP as WTA They estimate that they should even start at 6:30 p.m., according to the statement published on their websites.
This announcement comes a few days before the start of Australian Open in Melbourne, where last year Andy Murray concluded his second round match against the Australian Thanasi Kokkinakis at 4:06 in the morning.
Murray had shown his anger at that circumstance. He then approached the record for the tennis match that later ended, which occurred in el Australian Open 2008, when the local Lleyton Hewitt defeated the Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis at 4:33 in the morning.
He US Openand more recently the Roland Garros -which since 2021 has proposed a match in a night session starting at 9:00 p.m.-, have been criticized for their schedules.
WimbledonOn the other hand, it has an agreement with the areas neighboring its facilities so that 11:00 p.m. is the maximum time for the end of the day, without being able to play later.
There will be certain exceptions in tennis:
“In exceptional circumstances, a tournament may ask ATP/WTA a derogation, by virtue of local cultural traditions, due to weather conditions or other extenuating circumstances,” they stated ATP y WTA.
Also included in the list of measures taken on Tuesday is the limitation to five of the number of matches scheduled in one day on a single court (three in daytime session and two in night session).
The ATP and the WTA They also noted that a strategic study on tennis balls is underway, with the aim of proposing new balls of superior quality and reliability from 2025 onwards.
Source: AFP
