The US Open has perhaps been short of major drama prior to the semifinals, and hopefully, the best is still to come.
Aryna Sabalenka and Amanda Anisimova will contest the women’s final after both players emerged victorious from entertaining semifinals last night.
Anisimova had praise for Naomi Osaka after her match, and she will now be eyeing a maiden Grand Slam crown after reaching the final at Wimbledon.
Jessica Pegula was gutted after losing to Sabalenka in the first semifinal, but the final does now look entertaining with both players keen to win for different reasons.
The women’s semifinals have both been highly entertaining affairs, but for the fans, a real problem has arisen and the US Open organisers need to get their act together.
US Open organisers made a major error of judgment
The Grand Slam tournaments are the ones that every tennis fan, whether ardent or passive, looks forward to and as a result, the scheduling has been nothing short of shambolic.
The current schedule just does nothing for anybody, not least the players, with Anisimova and Osaka finishing their match at 12:54am local time.
Winning a semifinal should be the pinnacle of every player’s career to a certain degree, but Anisimova held her arms aloft in victory to a stadium that was practically empty in the early hours of the morning.
It makes very little sense from a sporting point of view to have these matches on so late, and when there are only two matches of real note on semifinals day, it defies logical thinking.
All the US Open organisers have to do is start a couple of hours earlier, thus allowing both semifinals the chance to compete for a place in a showpiece final in front of a packed-out stadium.
US Open having same schedule issues as Wimbledon
The Wimbledon organisers got the wrath of Taylor Fritz back in July when his match with Giovanni Mpetshi-Perricard was suspended with the scores locked at 2-2.
Elsewhere at this year’s Wimbledon, Ben Shelton was dragged off in dismay when serving for the match, returning the day after to win the match in a matter of minutes.
It’s quite farcical that both tournaments choose to start their order of play so late in the day when the latter stages come around and this farce at the US Open has to lead to a change.
Anisimova will be absolutely delighted to reach her maiden US Open final, but how nice would it have been for her to receive congratulations from a packed-out stadium?
Food for thought for the powers that be at the US Open ahead of next year’s event.
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