US Open 2023: Tournament not planning to change night scheduling in New York
- Published
The 2022 US Open match between Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner finished at 02:50 - a tournament record for the latest time
US Open organisers have no plans to change its scheduling to avoid potential late finishes at the upcoming Grand Slam event.
The finishing of matches in the early hours has been a regular source of concern for players.
US Open night sessions start at 19:00 in New York and feature two matches.
"At the moment, we are staying the course with two night matches. We will continue to evaluate it," said US Open tournament director Stacey Allaster.
Kazakhstan's Elena Rybakina said she felt "destroyed" by the recent Canadian Open scheduling, where her quarter-final last week finished at 03:00 local time.
The US Open's scheduling has led to many examples of matches finishing after midnight at Flushing Meadows, including an epic men's quarter-final last year between Spain's Carlos Alcaraz and Italy's Jannik Sinner, which finished at a record latest time of 02:50.
"Without question, late-night matches were heavily discussed and reviewed after the 2022 US Open," Allaster said.
"We looked at starting the evening session earlier, instead of 7pm start at 6pm, but it's not really a possibility because it's hard for New Yorkers to get here even at 7pm.
"We talked about one match at night, but we felt that's not fair to our fans."
In January, Britain's Andy Murray finished his Australian Open match against Thanasi Kokkinakis at 04:05 local time.
Murray described it as a "farce", leading to a discussion about the tournament's scheduling and the welfare of the players.
The topic has been a talking point again this week after the WTA event in Montreal where Rybakina called for change after her late finish.
World number one Iga Swiatek joined Rybakina in criticising the WTA - the women's governing body - for not considering the physical effects on the players enough.
On whether the US Open planned to make changes, Allaster said: "One of the realities we have in tennis is that we are not defined by a start and an end time.
"We can have a short match or we can have a five-hour match."
Allaster added: "One thing we do know, there is nothing like a night match on Arthur Ashe."
The US Open is the final Grand Slam tournament of the year and starts at Flushing Meadows on 28 August.