"You're not going to think Coco is going to play for three-and-a-half hours": Craig Tiley calls out Coco Gauff amid Australian Open scheduling concerns

Tennis News
Tuesday, 30 January 2024 at 22:30
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Craig Tiley, the tournament director of the Australian Open, has spoken out about Coco Gauff and addressed the criticism regarding matches that extended into the early hours. The American player endured a match lasting over three hours in the quarterfinals against Marta Kostyuk, securing victory with a score of 7-6(6), 6-7(3), 6-2.
The duration of Gauff's match led to the Novak Djokovic and Taylor Fritz match starting nearly two hours later than scheduled, resulting in a prolonged day that concluded close to 1 am. Aryna Sabalenka and Daniil Medvedev were also among those affected by the extended play.

Scheduling under scrutiny

Many have criticized the schedules in Grand Slam tournaments, particularly the players who require several hours post-matches for recovery and end up getting only a few hours of sleep.
The director was asked if they are willing to implement a curfew similar to Wimbledon, where it was determined that matches cannot continue past 11 pm and must necessarily conclude in the following day's daylight session.
Tournament director Craig Tiley commented on ABC that there are aspects that are difficult to control: "We can't start before 7 pm because of the news in Australia, so you rule that out," he said.
“And one thing that we can never do is predict the length of a match,” he said about the long duration in Gauff – Kostyuk match. “You're not going to think Coco is going to play for three-and-a-half hours. So we also try and put schedules on what we think our matches will go to."

Potential changes

Tournament director Craig Tiley commented on ABC that there are aspects that are difficult to control: “We can't start before 7 pm because of the news in Australia so you rule that out,” he said
“Also, as a sport we need to consider - again - not having lets. Having lets added 15 hours to the tournament across all events.”
“So there will be tweaks next year, but you're still going to get that one-off crazy situation where a match finishes at three in the morning,” he concluded.

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