The match against Shelton was the latest finish in the tournament’s history, and was one of several matches at Flushing Meadows to finish in the early hours.<\/p>\n
Eventual champion Alexander Zverev finished past 1am in three of his first five matches, while Venus Williams finished her first-round match at 2am.<\/p>\n
“I think it’s too much,” Alcaraz said of playing so late.<\/p>\n
“The last match people stayed but if that match was played earlier, the court could have been packed.<\/p>\n
“I would like to change the schedule a little with a maximum finish at 11pm or whatever would be better.”<\/p>\n
Alcaraz, 23, is one of a number of players to have missed large chunks of the season with injury.<\/p>\n
Britain’s Jack Draper has had a lengthy struggle with an arm injury, ultimately ending his season early to recover, while Alcaraz’s rival Jannik Sinner missed the US Open with a knee injury.<\/p>\n
The Spaniard said at the US Open that he will miss some tournaments in the future to allow himself to be “mentally and physically healthy”.<\/p>\n
He will compete for Team Europe in the Laver Cup at The O2 in London this week, between 25-27 September.<\/p>\n
The team tournament pits Europe – captained by Yannick Noah – against a World team overseen by Andre Agassi.<\/p>\n
“When you have your team-mates, the best in the world, by your side, it’s a weird feeling but it’s beautiful,” Alcaraz said.<\/p>\n
“We played like our lives depend on it. That’s why the Laver Cup is so good to watch as well.”<\/p>\n
Alcaraz and Italy’s Sinner split eight Grand Slam titles between them from 2024 and 2025, establishing a generational rivalry in the process.<\/p>\n
They have only met once this year because of injuries, with Sinner winning their sole meeting in the Monte Carlo Masters final to become world number one.<\/p>\n
“I have text him not too much, but a few times when he has been winning everything, mostly at the beginning of the year,” Alcaraz added.<\/p>\n
“I miss him, I miss seeing him around, playing against him. He pushes me to be a better player.<\/p>\n
“People will be waiting for those matches, so I think it’s going to be better.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The match against Shelton was the latest finish in the tournament’s history, and was one of several matches…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":858918,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[99,428],"class_list":["post-858917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=858917"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858917\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/858918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=858917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=858917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=858917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}