Emma Raducanu: Scheduling women’s matches last after men’s ‘doesn’t make as much sense’

MELBOURNE, Australia — The Australian Open is notorious for some late finishes. They usually involve a man, often a well-known one — Andy Murray and Daniil Medvedev spring to mind from recent years — playing a five-set match into the small hours of the morning.

The opening day of the 2026 edition could have a late one involving a well-known woman, and she said was not exactly pleased about it when she saw the schedule.

Emma Raducanu, the 2021 U.S. Open champion who has worked her way back from a career’s worth of injuries in just four years to be the No. 28 seed this January, said that it is “very difficult to be scheduling women’s matches after a potential five-set match” in her pre-tournament news conference Saturday.

Recent history suggests she is right. At the 2024 U.S. Open, the other Grand Slam that leans into its 2 a.m., Studio 54 pedigree, Aryna Sabalenka and Ekaterina Alexandrova started the final match of a night session on Arthur Ashe at eight minutes past midnight, because two men’s matches ran long. It was the latest start in the tournament’s history. Later that week, Zheng Qinwen and Donna Vekić’s rematch of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games gold medal match did not finish until 2:15 a.m., the latest finish for a women’s match in U.S. Open history.

Raducanu, who plays Mananchaya Sawangkaew of Thailand in the last match Sunday on Margaret Court Arena, does not want history to repeat itself 10,000 miles away. Their match follows Jenson Brooksby’s meeting with Alexander Bublik, and the order of operations is, in Raducanu’s mind, not right.

“To me, it doesn’t really make as much sense, but I think after seeing it, you know, the initial reaction is probably, like, oh, it’s a late one, then you deal with it, and you try and shift your day and adjust,” she said.

Tennis Australia did not immediately respond to a request for comment on its scheduling decisions. For tournament organizers — who have even more closely guarded their court assignments to neutralize betting patterns, according to chief executive Craig Tiley, who was speaking to the Tennis Channel — it all makes sense. Especially after the tournament’s move to a 15-day format from 2025 onward, which was designed to reduce scheduling pressure.

Women receive equal prize money, so they should play under the same conditions, including potentially playing late matches. A women’s match going long can also make a men’s match late.

The counter-argument involves being fan- and player-friendly. Night session tickets are good for two matches on the selected show court. If a fan watches a men’s match that goes five sets and four hours first up, very few of them will remain to watch the women’s match that comes after it, especially on a weeknight.

If the women’s match takes place first, there is a far better chance that they will stay and watch at least part of the men’s match that comes after it.

For the players, there is the possibility of a match appearing close to finishing causing them to go through their warm-up routines, which include taking on food and drink as well as running through stretches and other exercises.

Then the match doesn’t finish, and there is a whole other set, or perhaps two to play. So they cool down, again, and then prepare to warm up, again, in a process that can potentially happen two or three times if a match is on the absurd side.

As Raducanu said, complaining about it doesn’t lead to change, so she was busier trying to adjust. She scheduled a practice session for 9 p.m. Saturday to acclimate herself to night time conditions, which are far different than they are during the day. As the temperature drops, the ball slows down and doesn’t bounce as high. The wind can play a greater role.

Practicing at night will give her a chance to shift into a routine of eating at a different time and raising her energy level to meet the scheduling, however uncertain the actual start time of her match may be.

“When I played the semis of the U.S. Open, I played second night match, but other than that, I haven’t played that late,” Raducanu said. “It’s a new experience, something that I need to learn to do. Hopefully if I’m playing this game for a long time, I’ll probably be in this situation again, so it’s a good learning step to try and adjust and deal with that day, as well.”

Or rather that early morning, depending on what happens before she has to go on court.

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