PARIS – Like a lot of people who watched Novak Djokovic defeat Lorenzo Musetti, I just woke up.
My first thought was, ‘Where’s the coffee?” My second was, “Tennis will never learn.”
It is not for lack of opportunity. They have been playing and finishing matches in the middle of the night for decades. I saw the sunrise in Melbourne in 2008 after Lleyton Hewitt beat Marcos Baghdatis at 4:34 a.m.. I saw it again in New York when Carlos Alcaraz finally outdueled Jannik Sinner at 2:50 a.m. and got reacquainted with that bittersweet golden glow back in Melbourne last year when Andy Murray willed his way past Thanasi Kokkinakis at 4:05 a.m..
Call me biased. Call me scarred, all the more so when I read about the long-term effects of irregular sleep patterns.
But there simply has to be a better way than requiring some of the world’s greatest athletes -- and all those watching and working on site -- to pull all-nighters.
I have written about better ways for The New York Times and for Tennis & Beyond.
They include a curfew when play is stopped for the night (this is 11 p.m. at Wimbledon). They include a cutoff time after which a match cannot be started: a concept that is being trialed on the ATP and WTA Tours but has yet to be formally embraced by the Grand Slam tournaments.
They include more consultation with players and support staff: Nobody should be forced to play at 3 a.m. for a living unless they are in agreement. They include relentlessly focused efforts to avoid any scheduling moves that could lead to a ridiculously late finish like the one that occurred earlier this morning when Djokovic defeated Musetti at 3:06 a.m. and met with the press quite a bit later than that (breakfast before bed anyone?).
“I feel like a lot of times people think you're done, but really, 3 a.m., then you have press and then you have to shower, eat, and then a lot of times people do treatments, so that's probably not going to bed until 5:00 at the earliest, maybe 6:00, and even 7:00,” American Coco Gauff said on Sunday. “I definitely think it's not healthy. It may be not fair for those who have to play late because it does ruin your schedule. I've been lucky I haven't been put in a super late finish yet.”
Djokovic, still on a high after his stirring 7-5, 6-7 (6), 2-6, 6-3, 6-0 victory in the third round, chose to emphasize the tennis instead of the ticking clock, celebrating with the crowd and opting for discretion with the press.
“I don’t want to get into it,” he said of the scheduling. “I have my opinions, but I think there are great things to talk about in this match today. Both Lorenzo and my performances stand out, so I don’t want to be talking about the schedule. I think some things could have been handled a different way, but there’s also a beauty in winning a match.”
Djokovic knew from experience that railing against the timing or the tournament organizers would shift the narrative away from the remarkable comeback. Murray noted this conundrum in Australia last year but proceeded to let it rip anyway.
“Rather than it being like epic Murray-Kokkinakis match, it ends in a bit of a farce,” Murray said then. “If my child was a ball kid for a tournament, they’re coming home at 5 in the morning. As a parent, I’m snapping at that. It’s not beneficial for them. It’s not beneficial for the umpires, the officials. I don’t think it’s amazing for the fans. It’s not good for the players.”
Djokovic, a lifelong learner, clearly understood the pitfalls and left plenty unsaid in the aftermath of his own victory. Perhaps that is because he knows the first week of rotten, rainy weather at this Drench Open created all kinds of unwelcome problems and backlogs with the schedule. But 3 a.m. should be a last resort, and the tournament is certainly not in last-resort territory with another week to run.
The player organization that Djokovic helped found – the PTPA – has lobbied for changes to tennis’s late-night habits because of player health and well-being. To be fair, Roland Garros officials have taken this into account by scheduling only one match, instead of the customary two, in their night session. Guy Forget, the former French Open tournament director, told me when the session was formally launched in 2021 that part of the reason was “so matches would not end at 3 a.m.”.
Look how well that worked out.
There is, of course, no controlling what time a match finishes if you don’t have a curfew. You cannot run out the clock in tennis, although the decisive-set tiebreaker does provide some form of closure. The key is in the start times and though Djokovic vs Musetti was supposed to start by 8:15, it did not begin until 10:37 p.m.. Kickoff was delayed because organizers had moved another match - the end of Grigor Dimitrov’s third-rounder with Zizou Bergs - to center court after the regular day session was complete. There was urgency no doubt. The winner was going to have to play again on Sunday because of the rain delays. Conditions on outside courts, which do not have roofs, were still intermittently rainy.
But the move ended up guaranteeing Djokovic and Musetti a brutally late night. And when Djokovic was down 2-5 in the third set, he had an animated exchange on a changeover with supervisor Jake Garner.
They played on (and on). I remember getting into a taxi once in Paris around 3 a.m. and being greeted by the driver, who asked me in an amused tone if it was “tard” or “tôt” (late or early). There was no doubt about the right answer on Sunday night, and Djokovic, despite looking down and out, ended up going all in as what was left of the crowd on the Chatrier Court gave him a second wind early in the fourth set. They chanted his first name, as did his wife Jelena in the stands. They roared for his winners while applauding politely for most of Musetti’s. Djokovic, gasping for breath and grasping at straws, found strength in it, and with Musetti serving at 2-2, the Serbian champion summoned his inner wall and will.
We have seen it before: that mystic’s look; that full focus in Djokovic’s wide eyes; that refusal to miss or lose. It must be quite a high to experience; must be quite a fright to see it developing from the other side of the net.
Musetti opened the door by double faulting at 40-30 with an aggressive second serve that landed just long. Djokovic seized the opportunity with a brilliant forehand down the line struck from outside the doubles alley and then attacked the net on the next point to break serve.
He was up 3-2 in the fourth and though Musetti had no way of knowing it quite yet, he would not hold serve again and win just one more game in a match that he had dominated for significant stretches.
“I was in real trouble and credit to Lorenzo for making me uncomfortable on the court and playing some really amazing tennis,” Djokovic said. “At one point, I didn’t know really what to do. He was getting a lot of balls back, winners from both corners, good serves and running every ball down. It didn’t feel great, playing him that third set and the beginning of the fourth.”
Musetti, one of tennis’s most spectacular shotmakers, still has work to do on his staying power. He is now 2-6 in five-setters, and this marathon was a flashback to the fourth round at Roland Garros in 2021 when Musetti won the first two sets against Djokovic only to fade and win just one more game before retiring down 0-4 in the fifth.
Musetti’s only victory in six matches with Djokovic came in the best-of-three-set format in Monte Carlo last year. Perhaps his time will come. But it was certainly striking to see Djokovic at age 37 gathering strength and precision as the match progressed into its fourth and fifth hours while Musetti at age 22 could not keep pace.
It seemed, as it often seems with Djokovic, more mental than physical. Motivation has been elusive for him in this so-far downbeat season in which he has yet to reach a final. But with his title defense and No. 1 ranking in jeopardy, his pilot light was burning brightly again at crunch time against Musetti.
“The crowd definitely got me going,” Djokovic said. “I really needed that push. I really needed that energy. At 2-all in the fourth, they started chanting my name, and I just felt a great new wave of willpower and energy, and I think I was a different player from that moment onwards.”
Djokovic made 15 unforced errors in the long second set, eight in the much briefer third and seven in the fourth. But he made just two unforced errors in the fifth set and only four errors total, turning Musetti into a bewildered bystander.
It was not just the consistency, it was the attacking efficiency. In the second and third sets, Djokovic won 14 of 30 points at net: not a sterling risk-reward ratio. In the final two sets, he won 20 of 28 points coming forward.
"Who will sleep now?” Djokovic told the crowd in French when it was over. “It’s impossible to sleep with all this adrenaline. If you have some parties, I will come. Allez !!"
Consider it a complete, long-form victory and perhaps a Pyrrhic victory. Finishing a match after 3 a.m. in the middle of a Grand Slam tournament can play nasty tricks on one’s internal clock. Alcaraz proved that such obstacles can be overcome. After beating Sinner in more than five hours, he went on to win the U.S. Open, playing marathon after marathon. But that is not the way it usually works, and Alcaraz, lest we forget, was 19.
Djokovic is 37 with a bunch of talented younger men lining up to face him. Next up in the fourth round is Argentina’s Francisco Cerundolo and his fabulous forehand. Win that and Djokovic would face Taylor Fritz or Casper Ruud, who defeated him in Monte Carlo on clay this year.
The forecast looks better and drier for the final week of Roland Garros, and Djokovic will play Cerundolo in the late afternoon slot on Monday on center court.
An earlier night will be guaranteed, but it is high time for the Grand Slam tournaments to guarantee earlier nights in general.
Djokovic’s victory over Musetti was the latest finish in French Open history. Djokovic is a serial record breaker, the most successful men’s player of his golden era, but that is not the sort of record anyone should be chasing.
CC