Australian Open organisers faced criticism over scheduling after a long quarter-final between Novak Djokovic and Taylor Fritz delayed the night session by more than two hours.
Djokovic battled past his American opponent 7-6 (3) 4-6 6-2 6-3 after three hours and 45 minutes, with the match starting later than expected because of Coco Gauff’s lengthy clash with Marta Kostyuk in the opening match of the day on Rod Laver Arena.
Extending the tournament to 15 days this year and scheduling only two matches in each day session was meant to avoid the sort of early-morning finishes that have become increasingly common.
But there have only been two days out of 10 so far where play has finished by midnight, and Daniil Medvedev and Emil Ruusuvuori played until 3.39am in their second-round clash.
Tuesday’s delay meant women’s defending champion Aryna Sabalenka did not start her match, which had been due to begin at 7pm, until 9.10pm, and Jannik Sinner and Andrey Rublev were not hitting their first balls until after 10.40pm.
Discussions took place about potentially moving one of the night session matches to a different court, but that ultimately did not happen.
Fritz said: “It just screws up your whole clock. I pray for those guys. I get it, matches go long some days. Like, today in particular, my match was long, the match before us was really long.
“But there’s got to be something they can do where people aren’t playing until 2, 3am, because I don’t think people really fully understand how much time we actually have to spend doing stuff after we finish playing. If you finish at 2am, there is no chance I’m going to sleep until 5, 6am.”
Wimbledon is unique in having an 11pm curfew, but play at the other grand slams has no cut-off point, and, with the average length of matches increasing markedly in recent years, what was rare in now commonplace.
Djokovic said: “We’ve seen in the past some late finishes. And I know for the crowds and for the tournament in a way it’s kind of exciting to see a 4am finish, a 3am finish. I was part of some of those. But it’s definitely not fun for us.
“The good thing about the quarter-finalist on the men’s section is we have two days. So I think that’s plenty of time to get a good sleep and recover.”
Djokovic will also need time to recover after battling past Fritz and into the semi-finals in Melbourne for the 11th time.
The world number one has never lost here once he has made it beyond the last eight, and there is no doubt how much he wants a 25th grand slam title.
Djokovic had beaten American Fritz in all eight of their previous meetings but this was certainly not straightforward. The first game alone lasted 16 minutes and the first set 84 minutes as they toiled in the heat.
Fritz, looking to reach a slam semi-final for the first time at the third attempt, remarkably saved all 15 break points he faced in the opening two sets, and he impressively levelled the contest.
It was just the third set he had won against the Serbian, with the other two both coming in a third-round clash here in 2021, when Djokovic suffered an abdominal injury but still managed to win in five.
But Djokovic began to turn the screw in the third set as Fritz started to feel his left foot, and successive breaks in the fourth set him on the way to a record-extending 48th slam semi-final.
Speaking to Nick Kyrgios on court, Djokovic said: “I suffered a lot in the first couple of sets. Also due to his high quality tennis. He was really kind of suffocating me from the back of the court.
“It was really difficult to find the right timing, it was really hot while the sun was still out. We all know Taylor has got one of the best serves in the world. I knew the kind of a threat he poses when he serves on such a high quality.
“Conversion of the break points was really poor but I managed to break him when it mattered. I think I upped my game midway through the third set all the way through to the end.”
Fritz was left with mixed feelings, saying: “I played a really high level for the first two sets, and they were a physical, tough two sets. It was like two and a half hours by the time we finished the two sets. I need to get to the point where I can do that for five hours.”
Djokovic bemoans 'completely off' performance after early Italian Open exit
Novak Djokovic lamented his dismal showing as Alejandro Tabilo profited from the world number one's "completely off" performance to triumph at the Italian Open.
Tabilo stunned Djokovic with a straight-sets victory in the third round on Sunday, winning 6-2, 6-3 in his maiden ATP Tour clash with the Serbian.
The Chilean advances to the fourth round at a Masters 1000 event for just the second time after Indian Wells in 2023, with Djokovic unable to explain his struggles in Rome.
"I just wasn't able to find any kind of good feelings on the court, to be honest, striking the ball. I was completely off," he said.
A six-time champion in Rome, the 36-year-old won his opening-round match at the ATP Masters 1000 event against Corentin Moutet.
However, Djokovic was inadvertently hit on the head by a falling water bottle when leaving the court after that victory.
Whether that incident impacted his performance against Tabilo remains to be seen.
"I don't know, to be honest. I have to check that," he said. "Training was different. I was going for [a] kind of easy training yesterday.
"I didn't feel anything, but I also didn't feel the same. Today under high stress, it was quite bad – not in terms of pain, but in terms of this balance.
"Just no coordination. Completely different player from what it was two nights ago. Could be. I don't know. I have to do medical checkups and see what's going on."
Tabilo's next opponent will be Karen Khachanov, who saw off Francisco Cerundolo 6-2, 6-4, while Djokovic is made to wait for his 1100th match win.
Djokovic stunned in straight-sets defeat at Italian Open
Novak Djokovic is out of the Italian Open after a straight-sets defeat by Alejandro Tabilo in the third round on Sunday.
Tabilo recorded the biggest win of his career with a dominant performance, winning 6-2, 6-3 in his maiden ATP Tour clash with the Serbian.
Djokovic, who was hit on the head by a water bottle following his second-round win over Corentin Moutet, struggled to get going as he saw his serve broken four times.
Tabilo clinched the opening set in style, making few errors, and Djokovic failed to mount a comeback in the second, with double faults costing him at key moments, including one on the final break serve.
The Chilean advances to the fourth round at a Masters 1000 event for just the second time after Indian Wells in 2023. His next opponent will be Karen Khachanov, who saw off Francisco Cerundolo 6-2, 6-4.
Data Debrief: Big winner
Tabilo is the second player from Chile to defeat the World No.1 in ATP-1000 events after Fernando Gonzalez, who defeated Lleyton Hewitt at the Hamburg Masters in 2003, since the introduction of the format in 1990.
He is also the first Chilean to defeat a World No. 1 since Fernando Gonzalez beat Roger Federer at the 2007 Nitto ATP Finals Round Robin.
Djokovic, meanwhile, is made to wait for his 1100th match win.
Sabalenka dominates Yastremska to reach Italian Open fourth round
Aryna Sabalenka dominated Dayana Yastremska to reach the fourth round of the Italian Open on Sunday.
Sabalenka, who claimed Australian Open glory for the second time earlier this year without dropping a set, eased to a 6-4 6-2 victory over Yastremska.
Yastremska headed into the third-round contest having beaten Sabalenka in all three of their previous meetings, but the world number two found a crucial break of serve in the seventh game of the opening set before going on to hold twice more to take the ascendancy.
Yastremska's resolve was broken further in an epic third game of the second set, surviving six break points before Sabalenka finally got over the line to tighten her grip on the match.
Sabalenka didn't look back from there, breaking Yastremska again before going on to seal her place in the fourth round.
Sabalenka will take on either Sara Errani or Anna Kalinskaya in the fourth round as she looks to win the Italian Open for the first time ahead of the French Open later this month, where she will bid to improve on her semi-final appearance last year.
Data debrief
Since 2018, when Sabalenka achieved her first WTA 1000 win, she is now the player with the joint-most wins in such events (90, equalling Iga Swiatek).
Sabalenka may have lost her three previous games against Yastremska, but the last meeting between the pair was in 2020, and the two-time grand slam champion showed how much her game has progressed since then as she won all nine of her service games while breaking her Ukrainian opponent three times on her way to victory.
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