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  • Aus Open officials defend late night tennis

    1/20/08 11:37 AM | Mattias Yrgård
    - Australian Open officials remain convinced they made “absolutely the right decision” by sending Lleyton Hewitt and Marcos Baghdatis onto court shortly before midnight in a marathon match which finished shortly before dawn with the Australian on Sunday winning in five sets.

    Hewitt emerged with a five-set win at 4:33 a.m., just short of five hours worth of play. Tournament director Craig Tiley confessed that officials, led by referee Wayne McKewen, went ahead and told Hewitt and 2006 finalist Baghdatis to prepare for play as a five-set marathon won by Roger Federer over Janko Tipsarevic was going deep in the fifth set around 9 p.m on Saturday.

    But that call was apparently made before consulting the two women whose match was actually scheduled on court to follow Federer Venus Williams and India's Sania Mirza. Once the WTA pair indicated they were determined to take their appointed place, a late night was guaranteed for all.

    “We felt like our match was important,” said Williams. “We also felt like we wanted the schedule to go as planned.

    ”There was a miscommunication that went to both Lleyton and to Marcos,“ said Tiley. ”Because this miscommunication went late, and it was close to the time where they made the assumption they would be going on they wanted to get a quick hit in, which they did.

    “Then they felt they would be able to go and play. At that time, it was told to them, no, they would be going on second, as the match was scheduled.”

    Hewitt said that he and Baghdatis were given no choice in the matter. “We had an opinion, but we didn't get a choice. We were obviously put out a little bit thinking we were going to go on.”

    Tiley and Mckewen felt they were justified in the final outcome by the heroic nature of the Hewitt marathon win.

    “There's no question that we had an unbelievable night of tennis that was beamed around the world,” said Tiley. “We must be careful not to forget that, because at the end of the day, the tennis fan, which we all are, had an unbelievable experience last night.

    Added McKewen: ”It's an epic match. That's something that happens once every few years.“

    The Saturday programme had been further complicated by rain, which shut down play on outside courts and left only the two covered showcourts available for action.

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