US Open won't alter schedule to prevent late-night finishes

Andy Murray branded late-night tennis a "farce" after his second-round match against Thanasi Kokkinakis, at this year's Australian Open, did not begin until after 22h00 and finished at 04h05am.

Some players also complained about the late finishes at the French Open and, while Wimbledon's 11pm curfew prevents such issues, there were still a number of matches which had to be carried over to the following day.

At Flushing Meadows last year eventual champion Carlos Alcaraz completed a five-set win over Jannik Sinner at 02h50am, the latest ever finish at the event.

The US Open, which begins a week on Monday, holds a night session which incorporates two matches and which this year will still begin at its traditional time of 19h00, despite calls to start earlier.

Tournament director Stacey Allaster said: "Without question late-night matches were heavily discussed and reviewed after the 2022 US Open.

"We looked at starting the evening session earlier, instead of 19h00 start at 18h00, but it's not really a possibility because it's hard for New Yorkers to get here even at 19h00.

"We talked about one match at night, but we felt that's not fair to our fans.

"One of the realities we have in tennis is that we are not defined by a start and an end time. We can have a short match or we can have a five-hour match.

"At the moment we are staying the course with two night matches. We will continue to evaluate it. One thing we do know, there is nothing like a night match on Arthur Ashe."

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