Miami Open scheduling drama sees Novak Djokovic's match delayed

Five matches were set to take place on the showpiece Stadium Court at the Hard Rock Stadium on day nine of the joint ATP-WTA 1000 tournament in Florida.

The Iga Swiatek-Alex Eala match started proceedings and was followed by Alexandra Zverev's clash against Arthur Fils before Grigor Dimitrov and Francisco Cerundolo completed the afternoon session.

The night session kicked off with Emma Raducanu and Jessica Pegula with Djokovic and Korda set to be the final clash of the day.

However with the Zverev-Fils match and the Dimitrov-Cerundolo encounter both going to three sets, it meant the evening matches were off to a delayed start.

The Pegula-Raducanu match then also went the distance and it meant the Djokovic-Korda quarter-final was set to be pushed back.

Organisers initially rescheduled it for later, but they were forced to postpone it until Thursday as matches are not allowed to start later than 23:00 local time.

According to ATP and WTA rules, matches that haven't started by 10:30pm must be moved to a different court before 11:00pm. However, if the match hasn't started by 11:00pm, then special approval is needed from the supervisor, management and players before it gets underway.

It was then decided to rather postpone the match and it will now be the third match of the day on Stadium Court on Thursday.

Fils will take on Jakub Mensik and they will be followed by Aryna Sabalenka against Jasmine Paolini before Djokovic and Korda complete the afternoon session.

Fans who waited all day for the Djokovic-Korda match were naturally disappointed, but organisers confirmed that they will be allowed to purchase tickets for Session 19 at a reduced $10.

But organisers were criticised for their unwillingness to move some matches to the Grandstand Court when it became obvious that they would run out of time.

"I'm glad that the tours are finally helping the players, but again, there is Grandstand, there are other courts that maybe some matches could have gone off to, instead of filling up Stadium only," former pro turned pundit Coco Vandeweghe said on Tennis Channel Live.

And there is potentially bad news again for the late starters on Thursday as five matches have again been scheduled for the main court.

Taylor Fritz and Matteo Berrettini will kick off the evening session before Pegula takes on Eala in the women's semi-final and if some of the earlier matches drag on, then the WTA match could well be moved to another court or suffer the same fate as the Djokovic-Korda clash.

The winner of the Djokovic-Korda match will face Dimitrov for a place in the final.

READ MORE: Novak Djokovic: 'Surreal' having Andy Murray as my coach