Australian Open 2024: Tim Henman slams schedule after early morning finishes – ‘We can’t carry on like this’

Tim Henman has criticised the Australian Open tournament schedule after another early morning finish, claiming it “can’t carry on” the way it is.

Fortunately, Sinner got the match wrapped up in three sets to move into the semi-final relatively swiftly, but other players have not been so lucky.

Following Sinner’s win, which could have gone on for hours longer if Rublev had found a route back into the match, Eurosport expert Henman insisted something had to change.

“The day session could have started earlier, and then we wouldn’t have had a delay for the start of the night session,” Henman said in the Eurosport Cube.

“With those straight-set matches, the tournament and the players were lucky to finish at 1:20am. We could have finished at 2:20 or 3:20, even more if those matches go long.

“With the night session, the tournament doesn’t want to be selling a ticket with one match; they want two. That is your predicament.

“Do you start the night session earlier? Is 6pm the better time to start? That has some complications with the host broadcasters.”

Henman also argued whether changing the equipment could help speed matches up.

“Do we need to really think about speeding the balls and the courts up so the rallies aren’t quite so long?” Heman questioned.

“I reference one of the semi-finals between Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras. Five sets in under three hours; that just doesn’t happen [now]. It’s now an hour a set.

“This tournament has tried to talk about how starting on Sunday was going to help the night sessions, but that was absolute rubbish. It just meant that the first round was played over three days.

“With the finishes we’ve had; Medvedev finishing at 03:45am, this, something has to be done. We can’t carry on like this and say, ‘Well, the matches are taking a long time’, because it’s no good for anyone.

“The players, the spectators, the ball kids, the line judges, the tournament. Hopefully, this will be something that finally happens.”

Fellow Eurosport expert Mats Wilander had his say on the problem, and used the US Open as an example of how to combat the issue.

“The men’s match is second tomorrow. [If] they finish at 4am, suddenly they go to sleep at 7am or 8am, and they can’t really sleep, and they have to rest,” he explained on the Cube. “They can’t practise when they have to play the next day.

“The women play tomorrow night first, and they have to play semis on Thursday. It’s that one hour that they changed today; they usually start at 12pm but with Coco Gauff, they started at 1pm.

“We don’t have that problem at the US Open, because they always start the quarter-finals at noon.

“We often talk about Djokovic having the best schedule, because he plays at night. It turns out playing at night might not be the best thing, because you can have these situations. The luck of the draw.

“In golf, you get it all the time. You have bad weather in the morning, and you play late the next day. It’s sport, but there are so many people involved and it’s unfair for the players.”

Henman added: “It is sport and you need the rub of the green, but I can’t think of any other sport where you’re the best in the world playing in the best tournaments in the world at 3am.

“That’s where it’s no good for anyone. We’ve had this conversation over the years and we need to address it.”