Thus, while the benefits are obvious for the accountants overseeing the budgets, how does this decision affect the rest of the public?
Although the administrators of the US Open have remained silent following the clash between Williams and Kenin, they have in the past maintained that late-night sessions actually favor the spectators.
In 2023, tournament director Stacey Allaster explained their decision to keep the evening timetable, stating that late-night fixtures had undergone rigorous examination and debate following the 2022 edition of the tournament.
She remarked that they explored the option of shifting the evening session’s commencement from 7:00 PM to 6:00 PM, but dismissed it as impractical since local New York residents struggle to arrive by 7:00 PM as it is.
Allaster added that they also deliberated limiting the night slot to just a single match, but concluded this would shortchange the audience. She pointed out that a fundamental aspect of tennis is the absence of fixed time limits, meaning encounters can wrap up quickly or drag on for five hours.
This exact unpredictability lies at the heart of the issue. Even if coordinators do not anticipate every game to be a marathon, they are fully aware of the potential.
A men’s contest lasting five sets can frequently extend beyond four or five hours, while a full-length women’s match can easily exceed three hours. Scheduling these two events successively on the Arthur Ashe court with only a brief interval guarantees that the second matchup will not conclude until roughly 3:00 AM.
The delayed start for Williams and Kenin was a direct result of Novak Djokovic’s five-set loss to Mariano Navone, which dragged on for more than four hours.
By the conclusion of the Williams-Kenin duel, only a handful of spectators remained inside the massive arena, which has a seating capacity of 23,933.
