U.S. Open Men's Finals (had to be) Moved to Monday
The 2008 U.S. Open Men’s Final will now be played on Monday at 5 p.m., but it didn’t have to be that way… The U.S. Open is the only Grand Slam that plays the men’s singles semis and finals back to back on Saturday and Sunday primarily because of American TV contracts. However, it was a bad decision by the USTA that allowed Roger Federer to start his semi against Novak Djokovic at 11 a.m. on Saturday while Rafael Nadal and Andy
Murray waited until 12:30 p.m. to start their match in Louis Armstrong Stadium (it was originally scheduled to follow the Federer Djokovic match in Arthur Ashe Stadium). Given the forecast of heavy rain on Saturday afternoon, it was poor planning not to start both matches simultaneously in Arthur Ashe Stadium and in Louis Armstrong Stadium even if that meant relegating one semi to the secondary stadium. As a result of the bad decision, Nadal and Murray had to stop their match with Nadal up a break in the middle of the third set (Murray had won the first two sets). Meanwhile, Federer had already finished off his match and booked his spot in the finals before the rains arrived. Sometimes there are unavoidable schedule delays and one player has some extra rest before a big match. However, what’s so unfortunate about this situation is that it could have been prevented by starting both semis at the same time. One hopes that whoever wins the second semi, i.e. Nadal or Murray, won’t be too fatigued in the final…
|| Comments (0)
