The Italian Jannik Sinner ended his fight against the American Mackenzie McDonald around three o’clock in the morning. In the afternoon of the same day he met again. In order to protect his health and not compromise his participation in the ATP Finals in Turin (he made the final) and the Davis Cup (heroic champion), he announced that he would leave the ATP Masters 1000 in Paris.
This is not a new problem, although it is becoming more frequent as more and more tournaments adopt the night shift as a second box office and a bigger slot for selling audiovisual media. The Australian is in 2008 Lleyton Hewitt and the Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis They finished their Australian Open match at 04:33 hours.
This happens in Grand Slams, Davis Cup and circuit tournaments. Ultimately, those responsible, ATP and WTA, which govern the Men’s and Women’s Tours, respectively, announced measures to try to mitigate the accumulation of matches decided early in the morning, moderate the their repetition, so criticized. of the main actors, the tennis players.
Effective immediately, in trial mode during the 2024 season, the ATP and WTA are installing these new rules:
1. No more than five games per day and court, three in the daytime session (starting at 11:00 am) and two in the night program.
2. No matches will start after 11 pm, even with the express approval of the ATP/WTA Supervisors after consultation with the player’s representative.
3. Matches without a free court at 10:30 pm will be moved to another court no later than 11:00 pm
4. Evening sessions start no later than 7:30 pm, and a 6:30 pm start time is recommended.
Roland Garros and US Open They usually open no earlier than 8:30 pm, 9:00 pm, the evening program. Although the Grand Slams are outside the domain of the ATP or WTA, those organizations also open the door to exceptions.
“In exceptional circumstances, a tournament may request exceptions based on local traditional customs, weather conditions or other mitigating circumstances under the assessment of ATP/WTA.
They also indicated an intention to better control the use of balls in each event. Players hate constantly changing the type of balls, from one week to the next.
Source: La Verdad
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