Carlos Alcaraz seemed to be sending a message to the U.S. Open when he met with reporters in London on Thursday, calling it “too much” when discussing the early-morning marathon match with Ben Shelton in the quarterfinals.
Late finishes at Grand Slams have become more common in recent years, but Alcaraz’s loss to Shelton dragged on until 3:33 a.m., marking the latest finish in U.S. Open history, surpassing the previous record of 2:50 a.m. set by Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner in 2022.
“For an athlete finishing at 3:30 in the morning, it means we had to leave the courts at 4:30, then back to the hotel,” Alcaraz explained, according to Front Office Sports. “You don’t go to bed until 6:30 or 7 in the morning. To recover for the next match, the person you play has an advantage.”
Alcaraz and Shelton played a quarterfinal match for the ages that went five sets and had tennis fans on the edge of their seats as Shelton upset the former World No. 1.
A domino effect earlier on the day of that particular match ended up pushing start times back, and the first night session match didn’t start until around 8:20 p.m, over an hour later than scheduled.
“It is a shame a match like this didn’t reach a lot of people because they have to go to bed, they have to work in the morning,” he added. “If that match had started at 7 or 8 p.m., at the maximum finishing at 11, the stadium would have been packed. A lot had to miss it because of the schedule.”
Even with the late start for the quarterfinal match between Alcaraz and Shelton, ESPN averaged 1.3 million viewers.
USTA director Craig Tiley defended the scheduling to Sky Sports earlier this month.
“I hear from a lot of people that it finishes too late and then I say, OK, and your suggestion is? I don’t get anything,” he said. “You can’t control the length of the match.”
