‘I go to sleep at 5am’: Tennis stars brace for more late shows at US Open

Players are unhappy with scheduling hurting their chances, as post-midnight marathons take a toll further down the line

Even in the aftermath of a spectacular quarter-final victory over Daria Kasatkina in Montreal earlier this month, Elena Rybakina had little reason to celebrate. As satisfying as her grit and determination had been, Rybakina finished just shy of 3am. She was, in her own words, “destroyed”. She predictably lost her semi-final against Liudmila Samsonova, having played it with her shoulder heavily taped. Afterwards the 24-year-old did not hold her tongue, describing the Women’s Tennis Association as “unprofessional” and blasting its weak leadership.

Five days later Rybakina was still paying the price of that late night. After her loss in Montreal, she did not train at all before her first match in Cincinnati. Despite winning a round there, she retired from her second match, against Jasmine Paolini, in the second set despite having won the first. “It was horrible, to be honest,” Rybakina told the Guardian of her experience in Montreal, namely collecting multiple injuries. “It’s not easy because they [the injuries] are not even because of the amount of tennis I played or how long the matches were. It’s really tough to recover when you go to sleep at 5am.”