{"id":89319,"date":"2025-08-17T10:42:06","date_gmt":"2025-08-17T10:42:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/89319\/"},"modified":"2025-08-17T10:42:06","modified_gmt":"2025-08-17T10:42:06","slug":"eat-sleep-or-look-at-the-roof-how-top-tennis-players-cope-with-match-delays-tennis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/89319\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Eat, sleep or look at the roof\u2019: how top tennis players cope with match delays | Tennis"},"content":{"rendered":"

The greatest challenge for Carlos Alcaraz<\/a> in his third-round match at the Cincinnati Open on Friday was simply remaining sane. Before Alcaraz and Hamad Medjedovic, his opponent, took to the court, they had no choice but to wait as Francisco Comesa\u00f1a and the big-serving Reilly Opelka worked through a tumultuous three-hour, three-set contest replete with manic momentum shifts, medical time-outs and a last-minute rain delay for good measure. Alcaraz and Medjedovic had no idea when their match would begin, yet a large part of their job is making sure they are always ready.<\/p>\n

A few hours later, after closing out a straightforward victory, Alcaraz chuckled bitterly from a quiet hallway inside centre court as he reflected on his hours of preparation, which turned out to be more stressful than the match itself. \u201cWell, it sucks,\u201d he said, smiling. \u201cHaving to warm up three, four times, it\u2019s horrible. A horrible thing. I thought having Opelka in front of me was going to be a little bit faster. I didn\u2019t expect a three-hour match.\u201d<\/p>\n

His experience was reflective of one of the unique challenges of tennis. Aside from at the start of a day or session, matches usually have no fixed start time. In order to be successful, players must remain focused through this uncertainty.<\/p>\n

Karen Khachanov, the men\u2019s world No 12, says: \u201cWe can go in all sports: NHL, American football or soccer. They know the whole season when they start \u2013 which game, against who and where. In tennis, this is the toughest part. You need to adapt to the circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n

The unique nature of the scoring system makes things even more challenging. A match can completely flip at any time and a player can come within a point of winning a match yet still be on court hours later. Almost every player can instantly think of an occasion when the match directly before theirs significantly frustrated them.<\/p>\n

For Iga Swiatek, her 2023 French Open semi-final against Beatriz Haddad Maia is seared in her mind by the psychodrama between Karolina Muchova and Aryna Sabalenka<\/a> immediately before them. \u201cAryna had 5-2 and then lost in the third set, so I was warming up like seven times, literally,\u201d Swiatek says.<\/p>\n

\u2018Too much coffee\u2019 was part of Emma Raducanu\u2019s explanation for why she had to leave the court in Wimbledon 2021 and couldn\u2019t finish her match. Photograph: Ben Stansall\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a rollercoaster of emotions, from being stressed, to really not giving a damn what\u2019s going to happen in the match before, and then warming up again, being hyped up, and then being sleepy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Being stuck behind a dramatic and seemingly endless five-set match at a grand slam tournament is even more aggravating. Madison Keys instantly recalls a difficult situation one year at the US Open. \u201cI was third on, but I followed two men\u2019s matches, they both went five sets and I went on after the night session [had begun]. And it was in that moment that I decided that we should ban five sets,\u201d she says, laughing. Jessica Pegula, the women\u2019s world No 4, concurs: \u201cIf you\u2019re in a grand slam and you follow a three-out-of-five-set match, and they go five, you\u2019re screwed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Every player aims to start their match with their energy high and adrenaline pumping, but that is not always possible after so many false starts. \u201cIt\u2019s tough to wake yourself up again,\u201d says Khachanov. \u201cLet\u2019s say you warmed up, you are full of adrenaline, you are ready to go on court, and then all of a sudden, there\u2019s another set. So you are thinking: \u2018OK, should I eat now? Should I just sleep? Should I watch the phone or I just, I don\u2019t know, look at the roof? What do I do? Play cards with my team?\u2019 Sometimes you just don\u2019t really know what to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The first truly significant match of Emma Raducanu\u2019s career, during her breakout debut run at Wimbledon in 2021, showed exactly what this situation can do to a player. As an 18-year-old Raducanu and Ajla Tomljanovic waited for Alexander Zverev\u2019s five-set match against F\u00e9lix Auger-Aliassime to finish on No 1 Court, the Briton became increasingly anxious. Overwhelmed by her nerves, she took an off-court medical time-out in the second set of her fourth-round match because of breathing difficulties and had an apparent panic attack. She never came back. \u201cI had a little episode on the court,\u201d she says. \u201cIt was new to me as well. I had no idea what was going on. I think I had way too much coffee before that match as well. That was just an experience. I was so wired from the start of my day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Raducanu finds it far easier to be scheduled as the first match of the day, so she does not have to worry about the start time. Not everyone agrees, Daniil Medvedev<\/a> for one. The Russian says: \u201cI was talking to my team today. I was like: \u2018When I\u2019m 35, I might just boycott the 11am matches. I\u2019ll be like: \u201cI\u2019m not coming. Walkover.\u201d Like: \u2018Yeah, I didn\u2019t wake up. Sorry, guys.\u2019 In my opinion, 11 is so early. You have to wake up at 6.30 in the morning, where, if you play at night, you wake up at 9am. So it changes the perspective of the match. It\u2019s crazy mentally.\u201d<\/p>\n

In player lounges, locker rooms and warm-up areas around the world, each player copes with delayed starts in different ways. Depending on how he is feeling, Alcaraz can be found playing football, cards or napping. Andrey Rublev is always sleeping so he relies on his coach to provide him updates on the match before. And then there is Coco Gauff, who says with a laugh: \u201cI\u2019m usually just on TikTok.\u201d<\/p>\n

Others, such as Naomi Osaka and Keys, quickly find themselves immersed in the match before them. The latter says: \u201cI think we\u2019re kind of all just watching the score and just being like: \u2018Oh, come on!\u2019 Because a lot of times, especially if you\u2019re not on a main court, you can\u2019t actually see the match, so you\u2019re just waiting and staring at the score to flip. And you\u2019re living and dying [by the live scores]. All of a sudden you\u2019re cheering for one person that you\u2019ve never met \u2026 and then cheering for the other person.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are even times when players find themselves watching a match with their next opponent. One memorable example came at the Australian Open in 2016 when Roger Federer and Grigor Dimitrov sat side-by-side in the warm-up gym and watched<\/a> Lauren Davis prolong their day by dragging Maria Sharapova into a final set. Amusingly, Federer spent much of the second set tie-break screaming at the top of his lungs both due to his anguish at his match being delayed and his enjoyment of the contest.<\/p>\n

Grounds crews sweep rain off the court during a weather delay at the Cincinnati Open. Photograph: Scott Stuart\/ZUMA Press Wire\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

According to Dimitrov, who laughs fondly at this memory, taking in the preceding match with his opponent used to be common on the tour. \u201cI think it happened often,\u201d he says. \u201cNot so much any more, to be honest. Early on, the guys around my age were doing that. We\u2019re OK with it. Now it\u2019s a little bit different.\u201d<\/p>\n

The uncertainty of the schedule can cause more serious problems, such as the ludicrous, unhealthy late finishes that have become commonplace in the sport. Andy Murray\u2019s 4.05am win over Thanasi Kokkinakis<\/a> at the 2023 Australian Open, for example, was simultaneously an incredible sporting achievement and a complete farce. The men\u2019s Association of Tennis Professionals and the Women\u2019s Tennis Association have since initiated a new policy regarding late matches that, among many things, rules no match should begin after 11pm unless it receives special approval.<\/p>\n

For the most part, however, this is just an annoying, unique challenge for players to overcome, another reason why this is such a complex and interesting sport. Alcaraz says, shrugging: \u201cIt is what it is. We have to get used to it. If I have to warm up two, three times, I\u2019ll do it just to start the match in the best possible shape.\u201d<\/p>\n

After so many years on the tour, Keys has come to a similar conclusion: \u201cIt\u2019s really just about trying to stay focused. It\u2019s really hard, but you just have to try to manage your energy, eat as much as you can, warm up 37 times and just [remember] it\u2019s happening to the other person, too. That\u2019s all that you can do.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The greatest challenge for Carlos Alcaraz in his third-round match at the Cincinnati Open on Friday was simply…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":89320,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[99,428],"class_list":{"0":"post-89319","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89319","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=89319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89319\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}