 they only have to cover half as much court, and b) most rallies are over in two or three shots?){kind=link}
Next Gen Finals in Milan may hold the answers to stop the sport’s late-night crisis
The night shift are at it again. With Cameron Norrie finishing his season at 3.04am on Thursday morning, we seem to be reaching the point where tennis players are busier in the small hours than motorway repair men.
Tennis has always had its share of drawn-out, late-running drama – as anyone who recalls John Isner’s three-day marathon against Nicolas Mahut will attest. This year, though, has taken the trend to a new level.
Alexander Zverev set an absurd new record in February when he beat Jenson Brooksby in Mexico at 4.55am. At Roland Garros, the introduction of night sessions saw Rafael Nadal finish at 1.25am and then suggest “It’s too cold to play”. In New York, Carlos Alcaraz defeated Jannik Sinner at 2.50am in one of the matches of the season – which was sadly completed in front of a hugely diminished crowd.
Why is it happening? There are very few one-sided matches any more, as the professionalisation of tennis coaching leaves us with a workforce comprising dozens of identikit, net-phobic ball-bashers. Meanwhile, the introduction of the shot-clock – which was meant to hurry players along – has turned out to deliver the opposite effect.