TThe biggest challenge for Carlos Alcaraz in his third round match on the Cincinnati Open on Friday just remained healthy. Before Alcaraz and Hamad Medjedovic, his opponent, they went to court, they had no choice but to wait while Francisco Comesaña and the great-providing Reilly Opelka worked a tumultuous three-hour, three-set match with a three set match with a manic momentum shifts, medical time-outs and one last-outs and a one last-outs and one-outs-outs-outs. Alcaraz and Medjedovic had no idea when their competition would start, but a large part of their work is to ensure that they are always ready.
A few hours later, after closing a simple victory, Alcaraz chuckled bitterly from a quiet corridor within midfield while thinking about his hours of preparation, which turned out to be more stressful than the competition itself. “Well, it’s bad,” he said smiling. “To warm up three or four times, it is terrible. A terrible thing. I thought having Opelka would be a little faster for me. I hadn’t expected three hours.”
His experience reflected one of the unique challenges of tennis. Apart from the start of a day or session, competitions usually do not have a fixed starting time. To be successful, players must remain focused by this uncertainty.
Karen Khachanov, the men’s world no. 12, says: “We can go in all sports: NHL, American football or football. They know the entire season when they start – which match, against whom and where. In tennis this is the most difficult part. You have to adapt to the circumstances.”
The unique character of the scoring system makes it even more challenging. A match can completely turn around at any time and a player can come within a point of winning a match, but still be in court hours later. Almost every player can immediately come up with an opportunity when the game frustrated considerably immediately before it frustrated considerably.
For Iga Swiatek, her French open semi -final of 2023 against Beatriz Haddad Maia is shown in her head by the psychodrama between Karolina Muchova and Aryna Sabalenka immediately for them. “Aryna had 5-2 and then lost in the third set, so I was warming up seven times,” says Swiatek.
“It was a roller coaster of emotions, from stressed, to really not damn what will happen in the game, and then warm up again, be hyped on and then be sleepy.”
Sitting behind a dramatic and apparently endless five-set match on a Grand Slam tournament is even worse. Madison Keys immediately remembers a difficult situation of a year at the US Open. “I was third, but I followed two men’s competitions, they both went five sets and I continued after the night session [had begun]. And at the time I decided that we had to ban five sets, “she says laughing. Jessica Pegula, the Women’s World No 4, agrees:” If you are in a Grand Slam and you follow a three-out-of-five-set competition, and they go five, you are sucked. “
Every player wants to start his match with his energy high and adrenaline pumps, but that is not always possible after so many false starts. “It’s hard to wake yourself up again,” says Khachanov. ‘Let’s say you are warmed up, you are full of adrenaline, you are ready to go to court, and then there is suddenly another set. So you think: ‘Ok, do I have to eat now? Do I just have to sleep? Do I have to see the phone or I don’t know, I don’t know, look at the roof? Sometimes you just don’t really know what to do. “
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The first really important match of the career of Emma Raducanu, during her breakout debut run in Wimbledon in 2021, showed exactly what this situation can do a player. While an 18-year-old Raducanu and Ajla Tomljanovic were waiting for the five-set match of Alexander Zverev against Félix Auger-Aliasen to end up on No 1 Court, the Brit became increasingly anxious. Overwhelmed by her nerves, she took an Off-Court medical time-out in the second set of her fourth round match due to breathing difficulties and had a clear panic attack. She never came back. “I had a small episode on the field,” she says. “It was also new to me. I had no idea what was going on. I think I also had too much coffee for that game. That was just an experience. I was wired from the start of my day.”
Raducanu finds it much easier to be planned as the first game of the day, so she doesn’t have to worry about the start time. Not everyone agrees, Daniil Medvedev for example. The Russian says: ‘I spoke with my team today. I had something like: ‘If I am 35, I may just boycott the 11 -hour matches. I will be: ‘I will not come. Walkover. “Such as: ‘Yes, I am not awake. In my opinion, 11 is so early.
In player lounges, changing rooms and warm -up areas around the world, every player deals with delayed start in different ways. Depending on how he feels, Alcaraz can be found who play football, cards or naps. Andrey Rublev always sleeps, so he trusts his coach to give him updates about the competition earlier. And then there is Coco Gauff, who says laughing, “I am usually just on Tiktok.”
Others, such as Naomi Osaka and Keys, are quickly immersed in the competition for them. The latter says, “I think we all just look at the score and just be like:” Oh, come on! ” Because often, especially if you are not on a main course, you can’t see the game, so you just wait and stares at the score to turn around. [by the live scores]. Suddenly you cheer for one person you have never met before … and then cheering for the other person. “
There are even times when players watch a match with their next opponent. A memorable example came on the Australian Open in 2016 when Roger Federer and Grigor Dimitrov sat next to each other in the warm-up gym and watched Lauren Davis extends their day by dragging Maria Sharapova to a final set. Amusing, Federer released a large part of the second set of Tie-Break that screamed at the top of his lungs, both because of his fear in his game that was delayed and his enjoyment of the game.
According to Dimitrov, who likes to laugh at this memory, he took the previous match with his opponent used to be usual during the Tour. “I think it has happened often,” he says. “Not so much anymore, to be honest. Early the boys around my age did that. We’re okay. Now it’s a bit different.”
The uncertainty of the schedule can cause more serious problems, such as the ridiculous, unhealthy late finishes that have become commonplace in sport. Andy Murray’s 4.05 hour victory over Thanasi Kokkinakis on the Australian Open from 2023, for example, was at the same time an incredible sporting achievement and a complete farce. The Men’s Association of Tennis Professionals and the Women’s Tennis Association have since started a new policy with regard to late competitions that, under many things, rules are not allowed to start a match after 11 p.m. unless the special approval receives.
For the most part, however, this is only an annoying, unique challenge for players to overcome, another reason why this is such a complex and interesting sport. Alcaraz says, shrugs: “It is what it is. We have to get used to it. If I have to warm up two or three times, I will do it to start the competition in the best possible form.”
After so many years on the Tour, Keys has come to a similar conclusion: “It’s really just going to try to stay focused. It’s really difficult, but you just have to try to manage your energy, eat as much as possible, warm up 37 times and just warm up [remember] It also happens with the other person. That’s all you can do. “
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