Some tennis gamers, like loads of folks in different walks of life, completely hate waking up early to go to work. Not so Coco Gauff, who’s simply tremendous with competing at any time of day.
Certainly, the 2023 U.S. Open champion prefers a morning match time to what she known as “the graveyard shift” — and at Grand Slam tournaments, there typically are contests that stretch previous midnight.
So on the French Open, Gauff most likely did not thoughts when she noticed she was scheduled to face Australian Open champ Madison Keys at 11 a.m. native time (5 a.m. ET) in an all-American quarterfinal Wednesday.
“I’m a kind of gamers that doesn’t care,” mentioned Gauff, a 21-year-old from Florida who’s the No. 2 seed in Paris. “I can rise up early. I’m not gradual to get up. As soon as I get some meals in me, I’m just about good.”
Tennis is an all-day sport at Grand Slam tournaments just like the French Open
Tennis is an all-day sport, particularly at its Grand Slam tournaments, the place ticket gross sales and TV contracts herald tens of millions and drive decision-making by organizers. The French Open, U.S. Open and Australian Open all have evening periods that may stretch to 2 or 3 a.m.; Wimbledon has an 11 p.m. curfew.
So in Paris, for instance, a match can begin at 11 a.m. or 8:15 p.m. or wherever in between — or, often, a lot later. It’s a irritating side of the game for the athletes or for followers hoping to see a sure participant.
Scheduling at Roland-Garros has been a scorching matter, with questions on why the primary match day by day in the principle stadium — earlier than most spectators have arrived, leaving 1000’s of empty seats — entails girls, and why the favored evening session solely has gone to males.
The primetime slot that hasn’t been supplied to any girls in Paris since one match in 2023 typically means further consideration and publicity.
It can also imply staying up previous one’s bedtime.
Madison Keys is finished with the night-owl life
“If I might by no means play at 1 a.m. ever once more for the remainder of my life, I might be so completely happy,” No. 7 seed Keys, a 30-year-old born in Illinois and based mostly in Florida, mentioned with amusing. “You realize once you’re going to go on. There’s no chaos. You go to mattress at a completely regular time. I really feel like I’ve lived my night-owl life, and I might actually like to be that first-on slot for the remainder of time.”
Apart from the preliminary matches on every court docket within the morning and at evening, it’s inconceivable to know when to heat up and ramp up. Tennis is not a timed sport, so it is anybody’s guess when, say, a day’s third or fourth match in a given enviornment will start — and because the temperature and climate shifts throughout the hours, the clay on the French Open can shift, too.
Day by day schedules typically are launched within the late afternoon or night prior, and whereas gamers could make requests, these aren’t at all times accepted.
Waking up at 6 a.m. generally is a battle for tennis gamers
“That is one factor that’s not good about tennis: We don’t know once we play till the day earlier than,” mentioned Holger Rune, who was the No. 10 males’s seed on the French Open and reached the fourth spherical.
In crew sports activities, he continued, “They know already in December after they’re going to play in Might. You may put together a lot simpler. We tennis gamers additionally (cope with) the change of situations, the change of nations, floor, no matter.”
When he was a teen taking part in junior tournaments, Rune recalled, there have been 9 a.m. matches.
“It’s a must to get up at 6,” the Dane mentioned. “It’s a battle.”
Emma Navarro, an American who reached final 12 months’s U.S. Open semifinals, just isn’t keen on competing late.
“I’m tremendous explicit, I suppose can be the phrase, about my sleep. I received to get my sleep in. I attempt to get 10 hours an evening. If it’s darkish exterior, I’m most likely sleeping,” Navarro mentioned. “I might choose, most likely, to play first-on than late-night. Round 8 or 9 p.m., I begin shutting down.”
Most have their preferences. Carlos Alcaraz, the 2024 males’s champion at Roland-Garros, needs to play within the day. Alexander Zverev, the 2024 runner-up, is a fan of the evening.
After which there are these resembling No. 8 seed Lorenzo Musetti, an Italian who confronted No. 15 Frances Tiafoe of america in a quarterfinal that began just a little after 3:30 p.m. Tuesday.
“No matter time they offer me,” Musetti mentioned, “I’ll play.”
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Howard Fendrich has been the AP’s tennis author since 2002. Discover his tales right here: https://apnews.com/creator/howard-fendrich. Extra AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis
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