French Open’s ‘prime-time’ slot is the graveyard shift

Novak Djokovic’s 3.07am finish on Sunday morning showed yet again tennis needs to do more to look after players and fans

As another messy, rainy day at Roland Garros began to unfold on Saturday afternoon, it gradually became clear that things were taking a left turn. With certain third-round matches to be finished, the French Open organisers opted to move the uncompleted contest between Zizou Bergs and Grigor Dimitrov to Court Philippe-Chatrier before Novak Djokovic’s night session match, which was scheduled to begin at 8.15pm. Unless every match finished in straight sets, it was obvious that chaos would follow.

It is fair to say that those matches did not finish efficiently. The match on court, Alexander Zverev v Tallon Griekspoor, immediately descended into a dramatic five-set battle. Then Bergs forced a fourth set. Djokovic and Lorenzo Musetti entered the court at about 10.30pm, with Djokovic closing off his excellent five-set comeback victory at 3.07am, the latest finish in the history of the French Open.