Mark Petchey slammed the "insane" scheduling on the Italian Open as Daniil Medvedev and Stefanos Tsitsipas had their semi-final delayed multiple times due to the rain. The Prime Video pundit referred to as on event organisers to rethink the preparations for the latter levels of the occasion as the ladies's singles closing confronted the specter of being postponed to Sunday.

Despite being prolonged to 12 days, the Italian Open has confronted a number of delays because of the rain this 12 months. And the issue grew on Saturday when Medvedev and Tsitsipas left the courtroom for 2 hours and 47 minutes in the course of the first set of their semi-final. The pair had been in a position to play only one sport on the restart earlier than being rained off once more, with the event persevering with to delay its anticipated begin time ever since.

The event's scheduling has now been referred to as into query with each the ladies's singles and ladies's doubles finals getting shafted in consequence. Elena Rybakina and Anhelina Kalinina had been set to take to the courtroom not earlier than 7pm Italian time (6pm UK) with the doubles closing to comply with.

But the duo now face being pushed again to Sunday whereas the event makes an attempt to stage the ladies's doubles on the smaller Pietrangeli courtroom. The newest rain delay led Petchey to take purpose on the choices made this fortnight, as he gave his verdict on what bosses ought to do.

The former coach of Andy Murray questioned the choice to schedule the boys's semi-finals and ladies's closing back-to-back whereas having an prolonged 12-day calendar. "If you have a 12-day tournament and you extend it to the degree that they have, this scheduling feels insane when you don’t have a roof. You can make this schedule if you have a roof," he mentioned whereas commentating on Medvedev and Tsitsipas' match for Prime Video. 

"You can do what you want if you have a roof but when you don’t, surely when you have this many days to put a tournament together you don’t congest it at the back-end like this where we potentially have a situation this match doesn’t get done tonight." When the match was suspended for a second time with the fifth seed main 5-4, Petchey referred to as on organisers to postpone the ladies's closing.

"What about the evening session ticket holders as well? Right now, they’re floating around outside," he questioned. "That’s a big issue as well when you come to putting a schedule like this together, you now have them waiting outside for the women’s final who are now getting delayed to the point where you almost feel as though they’re going to have to be allowed to play tomorrow."

The tennis pundit proposed his supreme schedule for Sunday, additionally suggesting that the ladies's doubles closing be pushed again by a day and staged on the skin courtroom alongside the boys's doubles. He continued: "Will you push the men’s doubles and the women’s doubles finals tomorrow out on Pietrangeli and put the two singles matches on centre? That would be my preferred kind of solution to this whole situation.

"Make an early name, have two periods tomorrow. Ticket holders that maintain them for the night session come again to look at the ladies’s closing the place the boys’s doubles was and put the singles [after]."

Although Petchey knew it wasn't ideal to relegate the doubles to another court, he urged tournament chiefs to make the call early enough so that fans could prepare themselves to attend the matches on Sunday. But his calls fell on deaf ears, as play continue to be pushed back on Saturday night with the women's doubles final set to be held on Pietrangeli while the men's semi-final continued on the centre court.

"This is actually not an excellent scenario, there’s bought to be compromise from everybody’s perspective right here however that might be my manner of fixing this," he said. "At least try to get this match completed tonight, give the ladies a good crack at it tomorrow - which isn't trying nice as effectively to be trustworthy - and put the 2 doubles finals out of Pietrangeli and try to put it up for sale in a short time that there’s going to be some free tennis for some followers to have the ability to get on the market.

And he doubled down on his name to see the schedule rejigged fully for the again finish of the event. It comes after Friday noticed no males's singles motion, with the ladies's semi-finals and males's doubles semi-finals happening as an alternative. "They’re going to have to put their heads together and come up with a good plan. The plan to be honest for the last four days of this tournament news some revision," Petchey said.

But play continued principally as deliberate on Saturday evening, as the boys's semi-final resumed with Medvedev winning 7-5 7-5. The ladies's doubles closing was moved to Pietrangeli - the place Storm Hunter and Elise Mertens beat Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula. And each Rybakina and Kalinina requested to not have their match postponed, taking to centre courtroom shortly earlier than 11pm native time (10pm UK) to begin their closing.