12 time grand slam champion, Novak Djokovic has raised concerns of scheduling from tournaments ahead of his 51st match with Rafael Nadal.
The issue was raised in his press conference after the Serb finished his match with Kei Nishikori at 9pm last night, while his opponent finished his match at 2pm local time. When asked about the scheduling, he responded by talking about the general problem, “Why do you think I was late in the press conference? Let’s leave it here as it is. Because we could spend all night talking about this, as I have for the past thirty minutes or an hour. But, there are many things that just don’t make sense here. Not just this tournament but just in general, you know. This has already been several times in my career that I am facing this particular situation. And let’s just talk about this another time. Hope you understand. Thank you.”
The issue of scheduling has been a much talked about topic especially during this week’s tournament in Rome. The conversation was sparked off after Daria Gavrilova and Garbine Muguruza’s second round match finished at 2am. It has clearly been a problem for many years on both the ATP and WTA tours, yet nothing has been done to solve between the tours and the tournament directors.
As a result of Novak’s complaints and concerns, his match with Rafael Nadal will be 30 minutes later than originally scheduled, with the match taking place at 3pm local time. The match will be the 51st meeting between Djokovic and Nadal, with the Serb leading 26-24, although Nadal won their last meeting in Madrid last year.
