Melbourne, AUSTRALIA — It was well after 4 o'clock in the morning when Andy Murray finally trudged off Margaret Court Arena after a grueling five-hour, five-set battle with Thanasi Kokkinakis at last year's Australian Open.
Instead of celebrating the epic contest for what it was, public discourse immediately turned to what Murray described as the «farce» of being forced to begin his match well after 11 p.m. «It's not beneficial for [ballkids],» he said after the win. «It's not beneficial for the umpires, the officials.
I don't think it's amazing for the fans. It's not good for the players. »We talk about it all the time. It's been spoken about for years.
When you start the night matches late and have conditions like that, these things are going to happen." While Australian Open tournament director Craig Tiley at the time said there wouldn't be any immediate changes to the scheduling, things were tweaked for this year's tournament.