"Decided to see how the Novak and Fritz match will go": Aryna Sabalenka confirms Australian Open organisers asked to move Krejcikova match

Aryna Sabalenka breezed past Barbora Krejcikova to put the schedule slightly back on track at the 2024 Australian Open, but it was heavily mooted including by Barbara Schett on the Eurosport coverage that the potential of the two Grand Slam champions heading onto an empty Margaret Court Arena was quizzed.

The organisers of the Australian Open seemingly aimed to put Novak Djokovic and Taylor Fritz on prime time which set back the rest of the schedule and saw Sinner and Rublev playing into the early hours in another aberration for the organisers after early troubles despite the decision to play an extra day to seemingly alleviate it.

Sabalenka herself confirmed that they had been asked to switch courts but that they wanted to see how the match went first. Social media saw many quizzing why two Grand Slam champions with high stature in the women's game were told to play on another court instead of Sinner - Rublev and saw it as the top WTA stars again getting slighted.

"There was the possibility that one of our matches will be moved, but we just decided to see how the Novak and Fritz match will go, if it's gonna be too long, then we kind of, like, agreed for the possibility to be moved," she said at a press conference.
"They ask our opinions, what do we think, and if we want to be moved right now. We just told them that, let's see how this match goes. If it's going to be really long, then yeah, maybe it's a good idea to be moved. But Novak won that set 6-2, and it still was quite early, and we decided to wait for this match," she added.