John McEnroe calls for changes to ‘crazy’ tennis finish times after Andy Murray and Thanasi Kokkinakis match
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Published 19/01/2023 at 18:57 GMT
Following Andy Murray and Thanasi Kokkinakis’ epic second-round clash at the Australian Open, John McEnroe called for a rule change to matches that continue into the early hours of the morning. Murray beat Kokkinakis in five sets after five hours and 45 minutes, with the match ending just after 4am local time in Melbourne. It was the longest match of Murray's career.
'They should ensure this doesn't happen!' - McEnroe calls for changes
Eurosport expert John McEnroe has labelled the decision to have no cut-off point for late finishes at the Australian Open as “absurd” and “crazy”.
McEnroe’s comments came after Andy Murray beat Thanasi Kokkinakis in a five-set thriller that began at 10.20pm local time in Melbourne and finished just after 4am.
The Australian Open schedules two night matches on each show court, with the first beginning at 7pm.
Unlike Wimbledon and the French Open, there is no cut-off point at the Australian Open so matches can continue to run into the early hours.
"This happens rarely, but to me they should ensure that this doesn't happen,” former world No. 1 McEnroe told Eurosport.
“This is crazy to have players play to this hour at this level with so much at stake. To me it's just absurd that the players are playing, it's going to be a match people talk about, but it's also a match that greatly affects Andy's chances of going deeper in the tournament.
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"This has happened in the past, it's affected the players each and every time. What other sport - the World Cup, American football, NBA - are they playing at four in the morning? And you're talking about two individuals out there by themselves, there's no chance for a substitution.
"It is absolutely absurd that these things happen, I know that it wasn't planned that way and obviously factors go into it - the length of previous matches, whether the weather is a factor, I get it. But as a sport we can't have that continue to happen.
"There's got to be some type of cut-off point. Even then there would be complaints about that as well - like why stop it at one in the morning if it's two sets to one and players would want to finish? At what time is the legitimate time to stop playing? But these things need to be addressed."
Another issue McEnroe wasn’t happy about was the decision to not allow Murray or Kokkinakis to take an extra toilet break.
Tennis rules state each player can only go to the toilet once so when Murray wanted to use the bathroom ahead of the fifth set at 3am local time, he was not allowed.
“It’s so disrespectful that the tournament has us out here until f***ing three or four o’clock in the morning and you are not allowed to go and take a p***,” said Murray to the umpire. “It’s a joke, it’s a joke. You know it as well.
“It’s disrespectful to you, disrespectful to the ball children, disrespectful to the players and we are not allowed to go to the toilet. Ridiculous!”
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‘Disrespectful, ridiculous!’ – Murray slams Australian Open rules as match goes past 3am
McEnroe backed Murray’s comments by saying: “At that hour and that length of match, if one of the guys wants to go to the bathroom, I don't care what the rules are at that point and I'm not even sure why he couldn't go. I don't understand what happened there.
“I heard Andy mouthing off about it and it did seem crazy, especially given the fact that people are taking advantage all the time.
“So why in the hell after all that, at that time, would you not allow that to happen?
“I have no idea about the details of that or if they've already got a couple of times or what was going on, but it seemed rather nitpicky.”
Murray faces 24th seed Roberto Bautista Agut in the third round on Saturday.
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