Aryna Sabalenka stumped by US Open scheduling decision to delay her match 1 hr amid Novak Djokovic's late-night finish
Aryna Sabalenka's 2024 US Open third-round match against Ekaterina Alexandrova began after midnight and was the latest start in the event's history. The match followed Novak Djokovic's defeat against Alexei Popyrin at the Arthur Ashe Stadium. Sabalenka was reluctant to start the match so late.
On Friday, August 30, Ben Shelton faced Frances Tiafoe at the Arthur Ashe in the second match of the day session. They played five sets lasting over four hours and finished just before 7:00 pm.
This caused a delay for the night session's first match, scheduled between Djokovic and Popyrin at 7:00 pm. Due to the clean-up process and the transition of ticket holders between sessions, their match didn't begin until around 8:30 pm.
In a major upset, Popyrin defeated Djokovic in four sets, a match lasting three hours and 19 minutes. Subsequently, Sabalenka and Alexandrova's encounter began eight minutes past midnight. The World No. 2 went down a set early in the match but composed herself to win 2-6, 6-1, 6-2. The Belarusian's triumph came close to 2:00 am on Sunday, August 31.
During her post-match on-court interview, Sabalenka highlighted the over one-hour delay before Djokovic's match began. She was reluctant to start after midnight but that is exactly what happened.
“That was an interesting decision in between matches to have this 1 hour and 20 minute gap. I was like ‘no way.. I’m gonna start at midnight'. And that’s actually what happened. That was tricky. We stayed with the team and tried to relax. Right before the match we did our warm up and we hoped for the best,” Aryna Sabalenka said.
This year, the US Open has a policy that allows referees to move a night session match to another open court if it does not begin before 11:15 pm. The policy was not brought into effect and the match continued on Arthur Ashe.
Notably, Sabalenka's match was the last to start but not the last to end. Alexander Zverev's third-round encounter against Tomas Martin Etcheverry began minutes before the Belarusian's match and ended at around 2:35 am. It was the second-latest end in the US Open history and the German won the match in four sets 5-7, 7-5, 6-1, 6-3.
“I’m really happy I was able to turn around this match” - Aryna Sabalenka on her US Open 2024 3R comeback win
Just minutes after her match began past midnight at the Arthur Ashe Stadium, Aryna Sabalenka was already a set down. Her opponent, Ekaterina Alexandrova, was off the blocks much quicker and won five games in a row to win the set.
The World No. 2, however, made an extraordinary comeback as she won 12 of the next 15 games to win the match. In her post-match interview, she said:
“I don’t know what I did, I was just trying to stay low, put as many balls as I can back on that side. She played incredible tennis in the first set. It was really tough to change it."
“I’m really happy I was able to turn around this match and get this really difficult win,” Sabalenka added.
Aryna Sabalenka has set up a fourth-round clash against 33rd seed Elise Mertens at the 2024 US Open.