Australian Open bosses take into account ‘radical change’ to Grand Slam format

The 2024 Australian Open may reportedly endure an enormous format change, with bosses’ talks indicating a swap between the boys’s and ladies’s finals. The tweaks, mentioned through the 2024 Australian Open debrief, could be radical as each different Grand Slam – the French Open, Wimbledon and US Open – performs the ladies’s ultimate on the Saturday and the boys’s ultimate on the Sunday.

The girls’s ultimate is just best-of-three, in comparison with the boys’s being best-of-five. This implies that, with the boys’s ultimate performed on a Sunday, many viewers should stand up the following morning for work and be compelled to modify off. This notably impacts Australians whereas worldwide followers watching in numerous time zones will not be as affected.

The Australian Open finals often happen at 7.30pm native time, so the boys don’t often end till round midnight. As just lately as 2022, the finals match between Rafael Nadal and Daniil Medvedev went on till 1.11am. The 2012 ultimate between Nadal and Novak Djokovic, typically thought of to be one of many best tennis matches of all time, didn’t end till 1.37am.

By switching the boys’s and ladies’s finals, Tennis Australia bosses consider, viewers and reside viewers members could be happier to remain up and watch the boys’s finals. The match, that means, would come to a conclusive end earlier than 11pm native time on the Sunday. Organisers additionally hope that this would possibly give the ladies’s matches some added highlight.

According to the Australian Associated Press, these format adjustments have been put ahead and debated on the 2024 Australian Open debrief however a agency determination has but to be made. The thought isn’t flawless as organisers should issue within the 48-hour restoration interval between the boys’s semi-finals and quarter-finals. Usually, the boys play their quarter-finals on the second Wednesday, with the semi-finals following on Friday to offer two-day relaxation intervals between every match.

Female opponents, in the meantime, are used to one-day turnarounds between quarter-final and semi-final video games. This is made extra manageable as they’re solely enjoying best-of-three units.

Tournament director Craig Tiley has made it clear that participant welfare would by no means be compromised to facilitate such a change of format. Tennis Australia would additionally not want permission from the ATP or WTA to make these adjustments, however gamers could be consulted.

The 2024 Australian Open, which occurred in January, was received by world quantity 4 Jannik Sinner. The Italian beat Medvedev in a gruelling 3-hour 44-minute match through which the Russian had led two units to like. This was additionally the primary Australian Open ultimate since 2005 to not embrace any members of the large three.

The 2025 Australian Open will happen from 12-26 January in Melbourne.