New US Open policy on late matches gets Gauff’s approval: "That’s the best way to address it"

American No. 1 Coco Gauff believes that late finishes in a tournament can ruin a Grand Slam run for players, although she acknowledged that it hasn’t happened to her. According to the world No. 3, it’s much more likely that men will suffer from a late finish since they play best-of-five sets.

The US Open has had several late finishes in recent years. Particularly memorable was the quarterfinal match between Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner in 2022, which lasted over five hours and concluded at 2:50 a.m., the latest finish in the tournament’s history.

Gauff reflects on US Open’s new approach to late matches

As one of the top figures in tennis today, Coco Gauff is usually featured in the night sessions of Slams. This time, as the defending champion and home favorite, she will debut at Arthur Ashe Stadium, and it’s likely that as she progresses through the rounds, she’ll remain on the same court and continue to be part of the night sessions.

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So far, the American No. 1 hasn’t had to play until very late in her night sessions: “Yeah, so I’ve never actually had a super late finish just because I’ve just been lucky that either the match will go super fast or anything like that.”

“But obviously I do think that finishing late can really ruin your tournament, especially, like, on the guys’ side when they, you know, if they go on at, like, 11:00 or 12:00, you know, max maybe the longest a women’s match will go two hours or three hours, but men’s can go, like, five.”

Coco Gauff at 2023 US Open

The US Open will not have a curfew during the competition (as Wimbledon does, for example). However, the rules for the schedule will be more flexible. The night session at Arthur Ashe will start at 7:00 p.m. local time, and the USTA announced that if the last matches aren’t underway before 11:15 p.m., the umpire will have greater discretion to decide whether to transfer them to different courts as long as possible.

“I think for me, I think I heard the US Open this year if you’re going to start after 11:00 they’re going to move your court. I think that’s a good initiative to start. You may win that match that day, but your sleep schedule and everything is completely messed up for the rest of the tournament. So it does put that person at a disadvantage,” Gauff reasoned.

“So I think right now with that new policy, I think that’s the best way to address it. I mean, we won’t know until we test a lot of things, but I think this is a good start,” Gauff added.

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Gauff will debut on Tuesday against Varvara Gracheva and acknowledged that this time, despite being the defending champion, she doesn’t feel very different from last year: “I feel like I was in a crazy position last year where there was a lot surrounding me, like, before this, even before I was a Grand Slam champion,” she said. “So, you know, I had basically the same busy pre-week this week as I had last year pre-week of the US Open.”

“I think that’s where it was a little bit easier coming into all of this as a Grand Slam champion because of, like, the gradual rise I’ve had in this sport when it came to the amount of attention I was getting,” the 20-year-old player said. “Honestly, this week hasn’t been much different, other than people saying I’m the defending champion, but other than that, I feel like it’s been the same amount of attention and same amount of sponsor commitments and all that.”

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