"I pray for those guys" - Taylor Fritz bemoans late start to Jannik Sinner, Andrey Rublev's Australian Open QF after long match vs Novak Djokovic

Taylor Fritz has bemoaned the late start to the quarterfinal match between Italy's Jannik Sinner and Russia's Andrey Rublev at the 2024 Australian Open.

Fritz bowed out of the Melbourne Slam with a 6-7(3), 6-4, 2-6, 3-6 loss to Novak Djokovic in his quarterfinal match at Rod Laver Arena on Tuesday, January 23. The American put up a great fight but failed to cross the line.

Fritz's three-hour-and-45-minute-long match against Djokovic finished at about a quarter to 9 pm (local time), thus delaying the night session scheduled to begin at 7 pm. The night session featured the women's singles quarterfinal between Aryna Sabalenka and Barbora Krejcikova and the men's singles quarterfinal between Sinner and Rublev.

The Sabalenka-Krejcikova encounter ended in an hour and 11 minutes, with the Belarusian cruising through with a 6-2, 6-3. Hence, the matchup between Sinner and Rublev match was pushed further to a 10:45 pm start.

Taylor Fritz addressed the scheduling during his post-match press conference in Melbourne on Tuesday and expressed concern for his colleagues.

"I think it's rough. I was talking about that to Medvedev or, like, with a group of guys and Medvedev before, because he finished that one match so late. It's just, like, I mean, just screws up your whole clock. I pray for those guys," he said.

"If they end up doing that, then they can at least get scheduled at that time for the rest of the tournament. Because if you have to turn around and play in, like, the afternoon in any of the other days, it just completely messes your sleep schedule," he added.

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Taylor Fritz: "Don't think people fully understand how much time we have to spend doing stuff after we finish playing"

Taylor Fritz

During his press conference at the Australian Open, Taylor Fritz also called for a solution against matches finishing post-midnight during the tournaments.

"It's not easy to go out in the middle of the day in the heat and play three-out-of-five sets, especially when your body clock isn't on it. There's got to be something they can do, where people aren't playing until 2:00, 3:00 a.m," he said.

Fritz further suggested that a player can't go to bed for at least three to four hours after the match finishes because of recovery routines.

"I don't think people really fully understand how much time we actually, like, have to spend doing stuff after we finish playing as far as, like, ice bath, treatment with physios, massage, all this stuff. If you finish at 2:00 a.m., there is no chance I'm going to sleep until 5:00, 6:00 a.m," Taylor Fritz said.