After Novak Djokovic records the latest ever Roland Garros finish, players hit out at scheduling that is putting their welfare second
ROLAND GARROS — The metro had stopped running, every bar within a mile had shut, the majority of Paris was in bed – buton Saturday, and then Lorenzo Musetti produced one of his best performances of recent years to force Djokovic to five sets.
Djokovic tried not to criticise the tournament authorities for fear of overshadowing the effort his opponent had put in. “I was really happy that people, they stayed until the end because usually what I’ve seen is that when you play a late match, there’s not a lot of people and you’re, like, in the dark.”“I definitely think it’s not healthy,” Gauff says. “It may be not 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.
However, those regulations would not have saved Djokovic and Musetti, nor Andy Murray and Thanasi Kokkinakis in Australia when they recordedThe real problem is that tennis matches are getting longer. Balls bounce off the courts slower and higher, players are fitter and more accurate, points are longer and therefore matches too, none of which tennis has taken any steps to address.
“It was tricky. The balls are picking up a lot of clay and they’re already heavy, so they were even heavier.”
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