Andy Murray has called for an end to late-night matches ahead of the US Open after tournament organizers announced they would be keeping their order of play.

Last year's US Open saw several matches being played into the early hours of the morning. Perhaps most notably, Carlos Alcaraz's five-set win over Jannik Sinner in the quarter-finals went on until almost 3 am.

Moreover, there have been multiple recent instances where players have been forced to play at similar times at various ATP and WTA tournaments. Earlier this month, 2022 Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina claimed that she was 'destroyed' after a marathon match against Daria Kasatkina at the Canadian Open also went on until 3 am.

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Murray joins players in calling for change

This has led many players to call for scheduling changes at tournaments, but the organizers of the last Grand Slam of the year in New York recently announced that, despite having 'heavily discussed and reviewed' the issue, no changes would be made at the US Open.

However, 2012 US Open champion Murray criticized this decision, saying the late-night clashes were not healthy for players.

"I think it’s just generally not good for anyone," he said, "Obviously when the players complain about that stuff, you sort of hear, ‘oh, shut up and get on with it’ or ‘try working in a warehouse from 9 to 5’. It’s like, yeah, I get that. I do get that. I know I’m fortunate to be playing tennis, but playing at four in the morning.

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"Tennis is also partly entertainment – I don’t think it helps the sport that much when you know everyone’s leaving because they have to go and get public transport home and you finish a match like that in front of 10% of the crowd.

"You don’t see it in other sports. It’s clearly wrong. And the reason for it is purely financial, it’s not because the people that are running the events believe that it’s good for the players, they don’t. It’s a financial reason for why they’re doing it," the 36-year-old said.

Murray will play Corentin Moutet in his first-round match at this year's US Open.

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Six years ago today, @andy_murray defeated Novak Djokovic to win the ATP Finals and cap off his dream season.

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