"Pure stupidity": Scheduling disaster sees Novak Djokovic and Sebastian Korda postponed until Thursday at Miami Open

Novak Djokovic will not play Sebastian Korda now until Thursday with an ATP rule used for the first time during Wednesday night's action at the Miami Open which has been branded as pure stupidity.

The Miami Open organisers who have also done the same again for the action on Thursday scheduled five matches on the same court instead of spreading the play out which led to Djokovic and Korda slated to play at around 11pm.

But under new ATP rules which are there to curb such instances happening as are seen at Grand Slams, it states that a match cannot go on court after 11pm. The second Head to Head meeting as a result between the pair will now be the second match from 3pm local time on Thursday.

Djokovic is three wins away from a record breaking seventh Miami Open trophy. It would be his 100th tour level crown while Korda aims for a third Masters 1000 semi-final.

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Fans hit out on social media saying that this is why the PTPA is needed in the sport to stop this scheduling happening and said that fans who who have been given the chance to come back today on $10 tickets have waited around for nothing.

The likelihood is that Fritz v Berrettini could be the one that falls fowl on Thursday with Eala v Pegula being slated at around 8:30pm so the same issue could arise. Fils v Mensik is slated for around 1pm on Thursday and so the likelihood of the 3pm start time is very dependent on this first game.

But for the first time in a long while, scheduling is in the wing mirror even with this new rule implemented as Djokovic or Korda will now have to play back-to-back games if they win. Dimitrov won late last night and so he will get the day off while it immediately puts the player in question on the back foot.

When many pointed out that like Zverev/Fils, it could've been cancelled earlier to give the players more time to rest instead of it being a late decision as it was.

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