"We can fight" - Coco Gauff joins Rybakina & Swiatek in protest, slams tournaments for setting players up for 'terrible week' with late matches
Coco Gauff has sided with fellow WTA stars Elena Rybakina and Iga Swiatek in protesting against the late night scheduling of matches, slamming tournament organizers for setting players up for a "terrible week".
On Thursday, Gauff booked her place in the quarterfinals of the Cincinnati Open, taking down Linda Noskova in straight sets. At her press conference, she echoed the sentiments of Swiatek and Rybakina, urging her colleagues to take up the fight as well.
Gauff recalled her Round of 16 clash against Marketa Vondrousova at the Canadian Open last week, saying she had to fight for an early slot in the night so that she could get some extra sleep afterwards.
But the teenager also acknowledged that tournaments have to work with TV scheduling and that it's not as easy as moving all the matches early in the day to protect the players.
"Unfortunately, I think Elena and Iga said the same, there is not much the players can do in that situation. We can fight. For me, when I had that night match against Marketa and that was because of the rain, I really fought for the not-before 1:30 time, or not before 2:00, that saved me the extra 30 minutes in the morning, which means a lot in sleeping terms," Coco Gauff said.
"Yeah, but, you know, it's tough, because, you know, the tournament is trying to work with TV, and TV is working. There is a lot of things people don't realize. It's not as easy as just saying, Let's move all the matches up, because we still have to sell our sport," she added.
Coco Gauff further said that while she knows the player council is working hard to safeguard the interests of players, there's only so much they can do against the interests of the tournaments.
The World No. 7 was particularly sympathetic towards Elena Rybakina, who had one of her matches at the Canadian Open finish past 3 am. That eventually contributed to her semifinal exit at the tournament, as it left her "destroyed."
Gauff insisted that one-week tournaments, like the WTA 1000 Canadian Open and the Cincinnati Open, could do better in terms of scheduling to prevent such incidents from happening again.
"Yeah, there definitely has to be some type of compromise. I know that the player council is working on it pretty hard, but there is not much they can do, to be honest," Gauff said.
"(Rybakina's) match (in Montreal), she finished 3:00 a.m., which is insane. She's right. It does set you up, like, a terrible week. I do think that some of the tournaments, especially the one-week tournaments where there is not that extra day, have to do better," she added.
"I do understand the fans wanting that late-night match in that prime spot" - Coco Gauff
Interestingly, Coco Gauff conceded that fans might like the idea of late-night matches in the prime slot, especially in Grand Slams. There have been a lot of Slam classics at night over the years.
However, Gauff added that the smaller tournaments, which do not have the luxury of a two-week schedule, need to spread out their matches across all the courts and offer a more balanced order of play.
"Yeah, I do understand, like, the fans wanting that late-night match in that prime spot. There has been incredible matches in that moment. In the Grand Slams, I think, it's a little bit more manageable because there is a day between matches," Coco Gauff said.
"But I do think, like, in the one-week tournaments, especially when the events aren't combined, it's a little bit more easier to spread the matches out because there are more courts. I do think there has to be a balance with it," she added.
Coco Gauff takes on Jasmine Paoline in the quarterfinals in Cincinnati. A victory against the Italian will pit her against either Iga Swiatek or Marketa Vondrousova in the last four.