The USTA unveiled the 2013 US Open schedule today. After five years of having the men’s final pushed back to Monday due to inclement weather, they decided to make it official. The women’s semifinals will take place on Friday, the men’s semifinals on Saturday, the women’s final on Sunday afternoon, and the men’s final on Monday at 5 p.m. Here’s our quick take.
Amy: Not a big fan of the new schedule. I understand weather’s always a concern because of the lack of roof, but I still think with the demise of Super Saturday, the US Open should be able to conclude by Sunday.
Monday finals are anticlimactic. How many casual American tennis fans are going to be able to watch a final that starts at 5:00 p.m. on a workday? Most East Coasters won’t get home from work before 6:00 or 6:30, I would guess, so even if they turn on the TV the minute they get home, they will have missed a significant chunk of the match. Those on the West Coast will be even less likely to watch, as it will start at 2:00 p.m. for them. I don’t think that’s great for the sport, especially in a country where interest in professional tennis seems to be lagging.
That said, I’m glad the schedule is now conducive to having the players at their best for the finals. To me, that’s by far the most important thing. Now we’ll see if the US Open can pull it off, or whether we end up with a Tuesday final.
Juan Jose: This is great news. As someone who has called “Super Saturday” the dumbest thing in all of tennis, I couldn’t be happier to read a press release about it’s death. However, it doesn’t seem like it will be a permanent shift – it’s made clear in the release that this is only for 2013. I have no idea why they would even consider going back to the old format. I wish they had included a line saying that no matter if the tournament ended on Monday or on Sunday, there would always be a day of rest between the semis and the final.
About having an official Monday final, I think I would prefer it if the tournament started on a Sunday and killed it’s incomprehensible three-day first round instead. It feels weird for a tennis tournament to officially end on a Monday, but I guess having a huge event on that day isn’t strange at all these days, with the success of Monday Night Football in the US, and the regular scheduling of Monday English Premier League soccer games as well. At the end of the day, the main objective was getting a day of rest between the semis and the final, which was achieved. For one year at least!
I like how it took this long for a tennis official to say this: “Because of the nature of the game, and to assure a final that can be played at the highest competitive level, you need an extra day of rest. We recognized that.” That was my whole argument against Super Saturday. The final of a Slam is a tournament’s top asset. Why on Earth would you want to sabotage it by having the players battle out the day before over five sets?
I also find interesting that prize money has increased, but there hasn’t been a decision on how it will be distributed. Which means that the players and the USTA haven’t reached an agreement on that very key front yet.
Kudos to the USTA for releasing a statement about tournament scheduling without using the word “roof” at all. We wouldn’t want to name the giant rain-soaked elephant in the room.
Lindsay: You both make good points, and I primarily agree with them. I wish that starting a Sunday early would solve the problem, because I think stretching tennis to the weekends is the best thing for the sport. Then the three-day first round would make sense, it would be easier for casual fans to witness the amazing insanity of a first day of a major, and even better than that–the tournament would be taking center stage on a Sunday that’s not a football Sunday. Everyone wins! Unfortunately, I do realize that they’re trying to account for rain and weather during the event, which an early start doesn’t necessarily account for.
But really, I hate hate hate hate hate Monday finals. It’s awful for casual fans, which means it’s awful for the sport, because if anything should be pandering to casual fans it’s the US Open final. I’m glad the players get an extra day of rest, but it just feels like there has to be another way to make that happen.
Oh right. There is. A roof.
And for Europe it means staying up at unholy hours in the middle of a work week.. Thanks USTA.
i’m apathetic to the monday final myself. i think the 5pm start time is stupid. if you’re going to do a monday final then start it at 7pm or 8pm, when casual fans will tune in to watch it after getting home from work/school, instead of them having to rush home to watch the last set or something (which happened to me this year as i had a class that started at 5:15). yes, that will suck for european fans. but the usta and cbs aren’t thinking about european fans or their broadcast networks. they’re thinking about ratings and marketing and selling out those commercial slots in the US. i don’t see how a 5pm start will get them more money from advertisers then a 8pm start but what do i know?
at the end of the day the players got that extra day off which was most important. if the men don’t want to play a monday final then the usta need to take that under heavy consideration for the 2014 schedule and beyond.
I completely agree with you, SA. I was so excited to read about the end of Super Saturday that I missed the bit about the Monday final starting at 5 pm ET, which has to be one of the dumbest calls of the last few months. If you’re going to have a Monday final, it HAS to be on prime time. Otherwise, why bother? 5 PM is ridiculous: it makes it difficult for people to get to the stadium, and fans to get to TVs after work…and that’s on the Easter Time zone. Even worse for the Central Time Zone and rest, not to mention Europe, which as we know, is the 2nd biggest tennis market on Earth.
To me, the 5pm final is totally a CBS call, and it’s obviously because of not wanting to duel with Monday Night Football. Which is the reason why I think the big US networks should leave tennis alone. I get it why it was vital to have them around in the past, but in this era, where cable is ubiquitous, their use has far been surpassed by their limitations.
I like the effort, but not the best execution. There is still not a lot of wiggle room in the 2nd week for the (inevitable) rain delay. If there is a rainout, and the finals have to be moved, could you imagine a 5pm Monday Women’s Final, and a Tuesday Men’s final? Not great.
Monday presents a lot of scheduling challenges-push the time any later you begin to run into Monday Night Football Coverage, which is the first MNF of the year, which I am sure is the reason for the earlier start time.
If they shorten the Mens First round, they would have a day to play with in the second week if there was rain. Move Semi’s to Thurs/Fri and Finals for Sat/Sun?
I would really love to see the finals end on Labor Day weekend, but I realize that is probably not going to happen-avoid scheduling around football, and could give people who are already off a guaranteed huge match.
Thanks for that, TJC05. You make very good points, and I agree with all of them (see my response to SA above). I can’t believe I missed the bit about the 5 pm start for the men’s final. That’s incredibly shortsighted at best, utterly moronic at worst.
I love the Labor Day weekend idea – but as we know in tennis, if it makes too much sense, it most surely won’t happen. But oh well, we can dream.
I had never really thought about how cool the labor day final would be until I saw it mentioned on Twitter, and it was as if a light bulb went off. It would be pretty cool way to end the summer, and also help those who have to take time off of work to catch the event.
Fernando says prepare for the onslaught on Maestro fueled rest related changes to the ATP tour to keep the cash cow in play. What ‘s next? Maestro gets an automatic bye to the semis?
The Humble Bull is not afraid to play two long matches in a row.
I am Fernando @vivafernando
Maestro will be lobbying hard to at the very least get a chance to choose his side of the draw himself!
Federer gets a bye to the semifinals. LOL!!!