Fans tear into 'bizarre' Australian Open Day 2 schedule ft. Novak Djokovic, Jannik Sinner: "Why? Why? Why? You lowered level of the Grand Slam"

The scheduling of the second day of the 2025 Australian Open has come under fire from tennis fans. The tournament had originally announced that the bottom half of the men's singles draw would take place across Sunday, the first day, and Monday, the second. However, in a recent update, it confirmed that defending champion Jannik Sinner, who is in the top half, will be playing his first-round match on Monday.

On Friday, January 10, the official X (formerly Twitter) handle of the Australian Open posted an update regarding some of the matches to be played on Monday, January 13. The post read:

"Some of the matches on Monday’s #AusOpen order of play: Sinner vs Jarry, Tsitsipas vs Michelsen, Aiava vs Minnen, Sakkari vs Osorio, Swiatek vs Siniakova, Azarenka vs Bronzetti. Full OOP for January 13 out tomorrow"

The post received fierce backlash from fans, who lambasted the changed scheduling. Some fans went as far as to suggest that the tournament is biased towards Sinner, which might come at a cost for record 10-time champion Novak Djokovic and four-time Major winner Carlos Alcaraz.

"You’re probably going to shuff your 10 time champion to a lesser court just to accommodate Sinner on Monday. Unless you have the schedule wrong," one fan wrote.

"Wtf is this scheduling? Bottom half plays first yet Sinner gets to play on Monday and have a two day rest while Carlos and Novak get to play 1/2 rounds b2b? What’s wrong with you AO?" an irate fan asked.

"Why did you mess up the schedule? Shouldn’t the bottom half of the men’s draw have finished playing on Sunday and Monday according to previous reports?," questioned another.

Here are some more reactions to the Australian Open's second day scheduling update:

"So when does Novak play?? He’s in the bottom half of the draw ???? He can’t play Tuesday," stated a fan.

"Why？why？why？Shouldn't the match of Alcaraz and Novak start with Zverev? Why do you have such a schedule? You lowered the level of the Grand Slam," another commented.

"This is actually bizarre because Djokovic, Alcaraz and Kyrgios also need to play on Monday based on their half of the draw starting on Sunday? Sinner as well is very odd," yet another fan chimed in.

Djokovic, who reached the semifinals in Melbourne last year, has already stirred controversy ahead of this year's edition of the prestigious hardcourt Major. The Serb has sensationally claimed that he was given poisoned food during his detention in 2022, the year of his infamous deportation from Australia.

Novak Djokovic says food served to him during detention in buildup to Australian Open 2022 caused heavy metal poisoning

Novak Djokovic (Source: Getty)

In a recent interview with GQ, Novak Djokovic made a wild accusation aimed at the Australian authorities that detained him ahead of the 2022 Australian Open. At the time, Djokovic's unvaccinated status amid the COVID-19 pandemic proved problematic, and the Serb was eventually deported from Australia.

"I had some health issues. And I realized that in that hotel in Melbourne I was fed with some food that poisoned me. I had some discoveries when I came back to Serbia. I never told this to anybody publicly, but discoveries that I was, I had a really high level of heavy metal. Heavy metal. I had the lead, very high level of lead and mercury," Djokovic said.

The former World No. 1 would made his return to Melbourne in 2023 and won his record-extending 10th Australian Open title. Last year, he reached the semifinals, ultimately falling to eventual champion Sinner.