NEW YORK — Roger Federer and Maria Sharapova made clear they didn’t love the idea of starting a Grand Slam tournament on a Sunday instead of a Monday when the French Open was the first to do it nearly 20 years ago and they were on the schedule for the new, earlier Day 1.
Now that the trend has reached the U.S. Open this year, not every current player is exactly a proponent of the switch, either — even if the crowds were gathering on-site Sunday morning before the start of competition.
“I hate the Sunday start,” said Jordan Thompson, an Australian who’s been ranked as high as No. 26 in singles and No. 3 in doubles. “Tournaments don’t start on Sunday; they finish on Sunday. Pretty sure no player would like (it), particularly me.”
Alas, Thompson was scheduled to face Corentin Moutet on Sunday — but did manage to win in four sets — as things got going at Flushing Meadows, where there will now be 15 days of singles competition instead of 14, and there’s little doubt that more money from all sorts of sources was part of the calculus behind the change.
“I’m not really a fan of it. I don’t know why they had to make it even longer. Well, I know why they did it — they get to sell tickets for an extra day,” said 2024 U.S. Open runner-up Jessica Pegula, this year’s No. 4 seed, who beat Mayar Sherif 6-0, 6-4 on Sunday night in Arthur Ashe Stadium. “I’m not really for it. I don’t think a lot of the players were for it, especially those who play the week before a Slam. It makes everything a little longer and a little harder. I don’t think a lot of players want that.”
Pegula cited this move by the U.S. Tennis Association — which followed the French Tennis Federation’s decision to begin on Sunday in 2006, and the Australian Open’s move to do the same in 2024 — as an example of her sport’s repeated failure to ask for, or follow up on, athletes’ input. Wimbledon is now the lone major that starts on Monday.
“A lot of times, they ask for player feedback and when we do (respond), they don’t listen to anything we say,” said Pegula, one of 20 players who signed a letter in March sent to the people who run the Grand Slam events to ask for better communication, more contributions to player welfare and a higher share of revenue. “The way they go about announcing these things, sometimes players aren’t aware.”
This also comes at a time that players have complained about the recent shift to longer non-Slam tournaments that last more than a week.
Those in charge of tennis point to higher prize money that comes from those extended tournaments — and changes such as the extra day have coincided with increases in prize money, which is up to a record $85 million, including $5 million to each singles champion, at the U.S. Open.
USTA spokesman Brendan McIntyre said adding a 15th day of singles not only can “provide more fans the opportunity to see main draw singles competition in person, but also gives fans around the globe the opportunity to watch … (on television) on a weekend day and night.”
No. 6 seed Ben Shelton was the opening act in Ashe at noon on Sunday, and said before his 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 victory over Peruvian qualifier Ignacio Buse that he understood why tournaments would want an extra weekend day of ticket sales — and he was pleased to be on the side of the men’s draw that went first.
Still, there are players, such as Thompson, two-time U.S. Open semifinalist Frances Tiafoe or Matteo Arnaldi of Italy, who said it’s a mistake to set things up so someone who makes a tournament debut on Sunday and wins wouldn’t play again until Wednesday, a change to the every-other-day rhythm at the Slams.
“I mean, I get it,” Tiafoe, an American who is seeded 17th and plays his first match Monday, said about the Sunday opening. “Why not? If you can make money on a day and get the guys out there, and we’re already all here anyway (on what used to be) kind of a dead day … it’s not a bad thing. But the two days off that early in a Slam? It’s a little weird.”
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Howard Fendrich has been the AP’s tennis writer since 2002. Find his stories here: https://apnews.com/author/howard-fendrich. More AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis