Should Women's Matches be First at Night at the U.S. Open?
Given the long running time of the day matches the past couple days at the 2008 U.S. Open, there have been rumblings about why are men’s matches always scheduled second on during the night session. Tonight, after Serena Williams beat sister Venus Williams in a thrilling, tight two tie-breaker two set match, Rafael Nadal took the court against Mardy Fish at almost 11:30 p.m. Typically, a two out of three set women’s match
is scheduled to start at 7 pm followed by a three out of five set men’s match. If the day session runs late and therefore the night session start time is delayed (or the women’s match is a long three-setter) then the men can start after 10 pm or even 11 pm and run until 1 or 2 am if they play a long four or five set match. Is that fair? Is that a negative comment on the appeal to TV and/or tennis fans of the women’s matches, i.e. the audience might not stay until after a long men’s match to watch the women’s match. What about switching the scheduled first match, i.e. the women’s match, to Armstrong stadium if the day session is running late as was done with the women’s quarters between Jelena Jankovic and Sybille Bammer (the players agreed)? It seems as if there should be some “schedule sharing” at night as there is during the day, i.e. sometimes the men start and sometimes the women play first. Now the follow up question is whether matches should start after a certain hour, e.g. 10 pm or be moved to the following day when the schedule runs too late into the night… remember Lleyton Hewitt playing five sets against Marcos Baghdatis at the Australian Open? To be continued… on another day!
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