September 2nd 2024.
Last year, Andy Murray had a match in Australia that ended well past 4am. It was a grueling match and the British legend was left frustrated by the late finish. He may have officially retired, but he still closely follows the world of tennis and has been vocal about his frustrations with scheduling issues.
Specifically, Murray criticized the US Open organizers for the "total mess" that led to Zheng Qinwen's win over Donna Vekic not finishing until 2:15am local time. This match has now been recorded as the latest finish in the history of the US Open for women's singles. But this is not an isolated incident, as late finishes have become a recurring theme at Grand Slam tournaments this year.
Murray took to social media to express his frustrations, posting on X, "The tennis scheduling situation is a total mess. It looks so amateurish having matches going on at 2, 3, 4am. Sort it out." He even tagged several other accounts, including the official X page for the US Open, the Australian Open, Wimbledon, the French Open, the ATP Tour, the WTA Tour, and the International Tennis Federation.
It's worth noting that Murray's decision to tag Wimbledon was interesting, considering the All England Club's strict 11pm curfew - the only major tournament in tennis to have such a rule. The issue of late finishes seems to be more prevalent in Australia, Paris, and New York, and Murray is not the only one who has voiced their annoyance over scheduling problems.
Back in January, American former tennis player John Isner spoke out about the issue, saying, "No one should be playing tennis at 3:30am. This is looney tunes." The latest ever finish at a Grand Slam match was in 2008 at the Australian Open, when Lleyton Hewitt defeated Marcos Baghdatis at 4:34am.
In 2013, Murray himself had a match at the Australian Open that didn't finish until 4:06am. It was a grueling five-hour and 45-minute battle against Thanasi Kokkinakis, the longest match of his career. During that match, Murray also criticized the umpire for not allowing him a toilet break at the end of the fourth set, saying, "It's a joke. It's so disrespectful to the players that the tournament has us out here until 3, f****** 4 in the morning and we aren't allowed to go to the toilet and take a p***. It's a joke, it's disrespectful."
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