TENNIS IN MADRID UPDATE: ANDY MURRAY AND PHILIP KOHLSCHREIBER STARTED THEIR MATCH AFTER MIDNIGHT. WHO PLAYS TENNIS AFTER MIDNIGHT? NOT EVEN THE ROCK STARS! HOW DO YOU WIND DOWN AND RECOVER AFTER? WHERE DO YOU GET FOOD AT 3 AM? READ EDITORS NOTE HERE

Written by: Staff on 8th May 2015

TENNIS IN MADRID UPDATE: ANDY MURRAY AND PHILIP KOHLSCHREIBER STARTED THEIR MATCH AFTER MIDNIGHT. WHO PLAYS TENNIS AFTER MIDNIGHT? NOT EVEN THE ROCK STARS! HOW DO YOU WIND DOWN AND RECOVER AFTER? WHERE DO YOU GET FOOD AT 3 AM? READ EDITORS NOTE HERE

epa04732546 Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany in action against Andy Murray of Britain during the final match of the ATP tennis tournament in Munich, Germany, 04 May 2015. EPA/MARC MUELLER |

Madrid Scheduling Causes Hardship

After the scheduling of the Mutua Madrid Open forced Andy Murray to conclude his second round victory over Philipp Kohlschreiber at 3am and dictated the tournament’s second seed would have to be back on court just a matter of hours later for his next match, the ATP World Tour have promised to investigate.

The Madrid tournament organizers, under President and Chief Executive Gerard Tsobanian, follows the example set by many other tournaments around the world such as both the Australian and US Opens and in formulating the match schedule on the main stadium court in two sessions, one supposedly in the day and the other in the evening.

When the day session overruns because of extended matches, there are invariably problems and Murray v Kohlschreiber came after five preceding matches including Maria Sharapova’s long battle with Caroline Garcia, Serena Williams’ extended tussle against Victoria Azarenka, Nick Kyrgios unexpected win against Roger Federer and a Svetlana Kuznetsova/Sam Stosur marathon.

Andy Murray of Britain in action against Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany during their Madrid Open tennis tournament second round match at Caja Magica pavilion in Madrid, Spain, 06 May 2015. EPA/ALBERTO MARTIN

The Scot and the German were scheduled to be on court by 9.30pm. in fact they walked on court just more than three and a half hours later at just after 1am.

Chief executive Chris Kermode called the episode unfortunate and admitted he thought it potentially put players at a disadvantage in ensuing rounds. The late start was caused by a number of men’s and women’s matches progressing long into third sets and resultant tiebreaks.

However Kermode said, “There are a number of challenges inherent with match scheduling at tennis events, with multiple interests at stake across players, promoters, ticket holders, TV broadcasters and media.

‘It is critical that the interests of both players and tournaments are protected in a balanced manner on the Tour moving forward. While such instances are rare, we will look at reducing the risk of similar instances occurring in the future.”

Earlier this year Rafael Nadal finished a match in Rio de Janeiro with the court clock reading 3.21am while a women’s match involving Angelique Kerber at the Sydney Open prior to the Australian Open, went on until past 3am.

As it turned out Murray responded well and won his next round against Spaniard Marcel Granollers 6-2,6-0 in just over an hour, so guaranteeing himself a relatively early night and the chance to catch up on some much needed sleep.

However after his latest win, Murray told Sky Sports, “I definitely felt pretty tired today. I don’t want to get into it. We get into trouble if we say anything. But at these big events, if they want the players to perform at their best, they shouldn’t have us playing at three o’clock in the morning.”

British tennis player Andy Murray celebrates his victory 6-2 and 6-0 over Spanish Marcel Granollers during their Madrid Open tennis tournament round of 16 match at Caja Magica Pavilion, in Madrid, Spain, 07 May 2015. EPA/ALBERTO MARTIN

Story via Bob Larson news service

10sBalls _com Editors Note :

Dear tennis powers , Please Stop this ! It’s ridiculous ! Absolutely plain stupid ! Sorry but true. How can any athlete perform at their peak after midnight ? Start after midnight finish after 3 am ? Eat ? Digest ? Shower ? Massage ? Re Hydrate ? Ice bath ? Hyperbaric chamber ? Recovery time ? Rest ? Sleep ? Why didn’t they just throw in a 6am wake up call with a drug test ?

There were press people waiting to interview them. Global Chick was one of them. She is still grumpy. What time did Andy’s head hit the pillow ? 5 am ? He had to sleep a few hours and need to go right back and fight it out on another clay battle in a few hours.

Poor Andy. Poor tennis. Do the suits in tennis really think spectators want to watch tennis at that hour ??????

These combined ATP/WTA tourneys and Slams are all included all pull this “BULL #%£~” scheduling.

Chris Kermode you are a smart man. Fix this ! And start with not making the players sign the famous contract that makes the members of the ATP sign their voices away. The annual player /ATP agreement states They must not say anything bad about the ATP World Tour . Or something to that affect.

It’s a real secret and a real shocker.

No other sport is played in the middle of the night.

Topics: 10sballs_com, Andy Murray, Atp World Tour, global chick, Madrid Open, Mutua Madrid Open, Philip Kholschreiber, Tennis News

Follow 10SBALLS.COM on:

Facebook:

Twitter:

10sBalls_com says:

May 8, 2015 at 12:13 pm

#TENNIS IN #MADRID UPDATE: #MURRAY AND KOHLSCHREIBER STARTED THEIR MATCH AFTER MIDNIGHT… READ EDITORS NOTE HERE- http://t.co/QHcuUbhHHD