Novak Djokovic’s late-night/early-morning finish to his third-round match at the French Open drew the attention of another former champion.
Noting that Djokovic’s victory over Lorenzo Musetti didn’t end until 3:07 a.m. local time on Sunday morning, Coco Gauff said playing that late into the night isn’t “healthy.”
This one occurred in a five-set match that didn’t begin until 10:37 p.m. Saturday and lasted 4 hours and 29 minutes.
“I definitely think it’s not healthy,’’ Gauff said. “It may not be fair for those who have to play late because it does ruin your schedule. I’ve been lucky I haven’t been put in a super-late finish yet.”
And she added the night doesn’t end for players when the match is over.
“I feel like a lot of times people think you’re done, but really, [it’s] 3 a.m., then you have [media responsibilities] and then you have to shower, eat, and then a lot of times people do treatments,” Gauff said. “So that’s probably not going to bed until 5 o’clock at the earliest, maybe 6 o’clock, and even 7 o’clock.”
Typically, night matches at Roland Garros begin at 8:15 p.m., but rain delays pushed the schedule back.
Gauff suggested possibly instituting a rule prohibiting matches from starting after a certain time, but she acknowledged the difficulty of that.
“I think that’s something to look at,’’ Gauff said. “Maybe if a match is going long, possibly moving courts. Then I know it’s tough because, especially here, it’s only one night match, and people obviously paid for those tickets. It’s a complicated thing, but I definitely think for the health and safety of the players it would be in the sport’s best interest I think to try to avoid those matches finishing — or starting after a certain time. Obviously, you can’t control when they finish.”
After his win, Djokovic declined to go into detail regarding his thoughts on the timing of his match, but he didn’t sound thrilled.
“Both Lorenzo and my performances stand out, so I don’t want to be talking about the schedule,’’ Djokovic said. “I think some things could have been handled a different way but there’s also a beauty in winning a match [so late].”