In Bercy,
The big blow in the face for the organizers of the Paris-Bercy Masters 1000. Around 3:30 p.m. on Thursday, Jannik Sinner announced his withdrawal from the round of 16 against Alex De Minaur on center court at 5 p.m., that is to say less than 15 hours after the end of his match at middle of the night against McKenzie Mcdonald. The reason given by the Italian is very simple: “fatigue”, the kind of thing that happens when you finish a match at 2:37 a.m. Who could have predicted, especially after the player’s words after his victory: “it’s not ideal to play this late, we’ll see how I feel in the next few hours.” » On X (formerly Twitter) Casper Ruud sympathized vehemently. “Well done ATP, great way to help one of the best players in the world to recover and be as ready as possible after he finished his previous match at 2:37 this morning. 14.5 hours to recover… What a joke. »
The ATP advises against matches after midnight
Bad spirits aside, let us point out that the Thursday program fell as is customary at the start of Wednesday evening, that is to say well before Spirou’s victory against the burger giant. As the evening progressed, it became impossible to make any changes to the schedule: between the early sleepers who would have had to be woken up, the court reservations for the morning training sessions already scheduled and Novak Djokovic, who did not move from where he is, the equation was insoluble anyway.
What was left? Making the decision to shift Sinner-McDonald to court no. 1 when realizing that the epilogue of the Zverev-Humbert duel would not arrive before dinner time in Spain? The reporter – in his “ rule book », the ATP formally advises against holding matches after midnight – even if it means postponing the problem? In a world where evening ticket holders wouldn’t have been made to wait for hours in the cold rain, no doubt. Not in ours.
Because imagine that while Humbert and Zverev were throwing each other block after block for 3.5 hours, the spectators of the night session, who had dropped 100 bombs to enter the stadium from 7.30 p.m., were experiencing the beginnings of the storm Ciaran on the square, when the lucky ones crowded together like on the RER A in the entrance hall to watch the match on TV… until 9:30 p.m.!
A single parameter completely out of control could have saved the organizers from mismanagement and given Jannik Sinner a reprieve: a new day of extended matches, a big trend at the start of the week at Bercy. Wednesday, the day started with a thrilling duel between Dimitrov and Medvedev, lasting 2h56. The next day, no luck. The Bulgarian, again in the opener, decided to dispatch Alexander Bublik, (6-2, 6-2) and Andrey Rublev, who passed just after, was not sentimental either with Botic van de Zanschulp ( 6-3, 6-3). In cumulative duration, we get 2h15 for these two matches. Compared to the previous two days, it was Fast & Furious.
Do the tournament organizers lack “consideration for the health of the players” as Darren Cahill, Sinner coach, lamented on his Instagram account? A priori no. But it is appropriate to question the merits of these first bulimic days and the constraints imposed by double ticketing. Because it seems, for the moment, that the balance of economic interests and sporting interests is not perfectly balanced. Karma being what it is, Alexander Zverev, also flushed from the day before, lost in two sets against Stefanos Tsitsipas. A match concluded at 4:45 p.m., leaving the center court empty for three hours, time for the night session to begin. So ironic that it had to be filled urgently with a double between the Rublev/Kachanov pair and the two terrors Skupski and Koolhof. Yum.