Late Finishes Prompt Scheduling Rule Changes

Several tournaments have introduced scheduling reforms following sustained criticism of matches finishing in the early hours of the morning, a recurring feature of night sessions at large events.

The measures include earlier start times for evening sessions, limits on the number of matches scheduled sequentially on a single court, and in some cases hard curfews after which play is suspended rather than continued.

How It Happened

Late finishes are a scheduling arithmetic problem. Evening sessions frequently schedule two matches, and if the first runs long, the second begins late and can extend well past midnight.

The incentive to schedule two matches comes from ticketing, since a session with a single match is harder to sell at premium prices. Broadcast windows have also pushed start times later in some markets.

The Player Case

Players have objected on both welfare and competitive grounds. A match finishing after two in the morning leaves minimal recovery time before the next round, and the physiological effects of competing and then attempting to sleep immediately afterward are well documented.

The competitive objection is that the burden falls arbitrarily, with a player's recovery time determined by which session they were assigned rather than by anything within their control.

The Curfew Trade-Off

Hard curfews solve the finish time but introduce suspended matches resumed the following day, which creates its own scheduling difficulties and produces contests split across two days.

Most events adopting curfews have set them late enough to be rarely triggered, functioning primarily as a backstop rather than a routine constraint.