Andy Murray had a match in Australia finish past 4am last year (Picture: Getty)
Andy Murray has slammed US Open organisers for the ‘total mess’ that led to Zheng Qinwen’s win over Donna Vekic not finishing until 2.15am local time.
The British legend recently hung up his racket and officially entered retirement but he is still watching tennis and has been left frustrated over scheduling issues.
Zheng’s 7-6 (7-2) 4-6 6-2 victory has gone down as the latest finish to a women’s match in Flushing Meadows history but Murray, 37, would like things to change.
The 2.15am ending in New York is not an isolated incident, with late finishes at the Grand Slams becoming a recurring theme this year, following issues at both the Australian Open and French Open.
‘The tennis scheduling situation is a total mess,’ Murray posted on X. ‘It looks so amateurish having matches going on at 2, 3, 4am. Sort it out.’
Murray tagged a number of other accounts at the end of his post, including the official X page for the US Open.
The former world No.1, who won the US Open men’s singles title in 2012, also tagged the Australian Open, Wimbledon, the French Open, the ATP Tour, the WTA Tour and the International Tennis Federation (ITF).
Zheng Qinwen’s win over Donna Vekic was confirmed at 2.15am (Picture: Getty)
Murray’s decision to tag Wimbledon was interesting given the All England Club’s 11pm curfew – the only major tournament in tennis to have that particular rule.
The late finishes are more of an issue in Australia, Paris and New York, and Murray is certainly not the only person to express annoyance over scheduling problems.
‘No one should be playing tennis at 3.30am,’ American former tennis player John Isner said in January. ‘This is looney tunes.’
The latest ever finish at a Grand Slam match came in Australia in 2008 when Lleyton Hewitt defeated Marcos Baghdatis 4-6 7-5 7-5 6-7 6-3 at 4.34am.
Murray, meanwhile, saw one of his Australian Open matches in 2023 not finish until 4.06am as he battled past Thanasi Kokkinakis in a match which lasted five hours and 45 minutes – the longest of his entire career.
The Brit slammed the umpire during that match for refusing him a toilet break at the end of the fourth set and said: ‘It’s a joke. It’s so disrespectful to the players that the tournament has us out here until three, f****** four in the morning and we aren’t allowed to go to the toilet and take a p***. It’s a joke, it’s disrespectful.’