By Randy Walker
@TennisPublisher
The U.S. Open will start on a Sunday in 2024, according to…. Amazon Alexa.
If you have an Amazon Echo device and you now ask “Alexa” when the 2024 U.S. Open will start or what the dates are for the tournament, it will answer that it will start on Sunday, August 25.
WATCH here: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/lLNDENeoQYQ And try it yourself if you have one of these devices.
Alexa perhaps is digging into some deep Artificial Intelligence here as no official announcement has been made on this by the U.S. Tennis Association. Or, perhaps Alexa is just wrong, which would not be the first time either.
However, many in the tennis industry expect that the U.S. Open will eventually join the French and Australian Opens with a Sunday start and take advantage of another weekend day of play for TV audiences and ticket buyers. What specifically would be positive about this with regard to America’s Grand Slam? Obviously, there is an additional day of income via ticket sales, vending and TV advertising for the USTA, which uses revenue to promote and develop tennis across the country. Even though the U.S. Open has two stadiums with a roof, if there was ever a complete rain out during the first round of play, it would be much easier on the schedule if the first round was spread over three days. But this also is a plus for fans who would then have an extra weekend day in which to attend the tournament. And with this first day of competition being first round matches, and presumably up to one third of the first round matches, there will be a lot of matches potentially on the menu for fans. This would be in contrast to the Labor Day weekend of matches, which has traditionally been the mega weekend for fans to travel to New York during the three-day holiday weekend to attend the festivities. As I have written about and talked about in the past (as you can read here https://www.worldtennismagazine.com/archives/21267 and watch here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fGp1JzwEsM) Labor Day weekend has, recently been limiting as far as options of matches to watch, especially for die-hard fans who enjoy a grounds ticket and to watch matches on the outer courts. However, the U.S. Open has still drawn record crowds over this weekend, despite the limited matches on the outer courts. In the past, the USTA staggered the first round of men’s matches over the first three days of the tournament (Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday) which provided for 16 third round men’s singles matches on the Saturday and Sunday of Labor Day weekend (providing for big matches on the outer courts) and eight fourth round men’s matches on Labor Day Monday (and Tuesday).
Earlier In 2024, the Australian Open joined Roland Garros with the Sunday start.
“It’s cool for spectators,” said Nick Kyrgios on ESPN of the extra Sunday in Melbourne this year. “To have that extra day is only good in my eyes.”
John McEnroe, however, frowned on Tennis Australia’s decision saying, “It’s a money grab…They just found another way to make some money…I completely disagree with it, but that’s probably me being selfish [because] I have to be away from home an extra day or two.”
Roger Federer was one of the vocal opponents to a Sunday start at Roland Garros which started in 2006 as excerpted here in my “On This Day In Roger Federer History” book (for sale and download here: https://a.co/d/a8PJdLY) from the May 28 chapter.
2006: In the first ever Sunday start at the French Open, Roger Federer is on the day’s schedule, despite not requesting it, and is not pleased. Federer does beat Argentine lucky loser Diego Hartfield 7-5, 7-6(2), 6-2 in two hours and 35 minutes but vents his displeasure with the scheduling in his post-match press conference. “I only knew one day ahead who I was going to play, and I never heard of his name or never seen him before,” Federer says of Hartfield, who replaced Federer’s original opponent, Arnaud Clement, who pulls out of the tournament the day before due to injury. “I’m happy I didn’t lose, because otherwise I’d be very angry right now…. I requested not to play Sunday, so I wasn’t happy to play today. But I’m through.” Federer then jokes, “I can go home to Switzerland, come back in four days and be ready for Wednesday.”
However, Federer had a bit of a change of heart seven years later on May 26, 2013…
2013: Starting his French Open campaign by playing on the controversial first Sunday, Roger Federer defeats Spanish qualifier Pablo Carreno-Busta 6-2, 6-2, 6-3. “I told them if they wanted me to play Sunday, whatever, I’m fine with it,” says Federer of French Open officials and the Sunday start. “They took that opportunity right away.”
