Andy Roddick isn\u2019t sorry about what happened at the US Open Tuesday night into Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n
Ben Shelton beat Carlos Alcaraz in five sets, closing it out on a tiebreak with match point at 3:33 a.m. ET. It was the biggest win of Shelton\u2019s career, the first time an American man had beaten Alcaraz or Jannik Sinner at a Grand Slam, and it guaranteed an American a spot in the US Open men\u2019s final for the first time in 20 years. Almost none of that mattered to the country watching, because almost none of the country was still awake. Frances Tiafoe\u2019s own five-set win over Alex Michelsen had already pushed the start of Shelton-Alcaraz past 11 p.m., and by the time it actually finished, the moment belonged mostly to whoever was still in the stadium.<\/p>\n
Roddick addressed it all on his Served podcast.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know a lot of the comments are, you know, \u2018How do you finish at 4 in the morning?\u2019 and all of that,\u201d Roddick said. \u201cWell, every match goes to a match tiebreak except for one. And you\u2019ve got to get 25,000 people out of a stadium responsibly, and you\u2019ve got to get 25,000 people in responsibly. So, I hear a lot of complaining. I don\u2019t hear a lot of proposed solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n
He specifically brought up comments Bill Simmons made<\/a> earlier this week, in which The Ringer founder had argued that tennis has lost the plot, that matches now run \u201croutinely\u201d past four and a half hours, and that nothing billed as entertainment should ask that much of an audience.<\/p>\n In 2023, The Athletic<\/a> published ATP data showing grand slam matches averaged 2:21 in 1999 compared to 2:54 in 2023. And just yesterday, Botic van de Zandschulp defeated Arthur Gea in a match that lasted 5:13 to reach the quarterfinals.<\/p>\n You can understand where Simmons is coming from. Our brains are not conditioned to sit in one place for almost five hours and stay committed to one thing in 2026. Add in the fact that top-level tennis has largely become one long baseline rally after another, and it\u2019s easy to see how it might become monotonous. But while baseball found some reasonable, easy-to-implement fixes, it\u2019s harder to see where tennis can do the same without making fundamental changes to the sport.<\/p>\n \u201cStarting earlier wasn\u2019t possible because of Frances and Mickelson\u2019s match,\u201d Roddick said. \u201cAnd so, you have to have a night session at the US Open. It\u2019s one of the things that we all love. And they\u2019ve been on the wrong side of luck. Now, I know there are some people who have said shorter format. And I know Bill Simmons made the point that this is ridiculous, that we\u2019re playing too long. He\u2019s normally well thought out in his thoughts. I don\u2019t disagree with the premise that, like, \u2018Five hours is too much. I\u2019m bored.’\u201d<\/p>\n Roddick isn\u2019t arguing five-hour tennis matches are convenient, or even good for TV. He\u2019s arguing there\u2019s a difference between fixing the scheduling that produces a five-hour match and fixing the match itself. The first is worth solving. The second risks gutting what makes tennis different from every other sport.<\/p>\n \u201c7-6 in the fifth last night for Ben Shelton and Carlos Alcaraz in that match, where Tiafoe is down two sets, and the guy\u2019s serving for it \u2014 I kind of like the fact that we have a sport where you get into these long-form matches and it\u2019s the hardest thing on earth,\u201d Roddick said. \u201cIt\u2019s the hardest sport in the world. If you take that away, can we lay that claim anymore? I don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n \u201cI understand all the pragmatists out there that say we should have a shorter format. I understand the reasons for it. I understand that it\u2019s inconvenient for Sean to be up until 4:00 a.m., you know, watching this match while he\u2019s editing last night\u2019s show,\u201d Roddick said. \u201cI understand that some people have to go to sleep because, like you, I had to go to sleep to protect my workday today. I understand all of the rational arguments. And my only argument to you is: Did you f*cking see what happened last night?\u201d<\/p>\n Roddick\u2019s own commentary at Wimbledon this summer was good enough<\/a> that people started asking<\/a> whether it\u2019s time for ESPN to move past the John McEnroe era of tennis coverage. Which is perhaps why Roddick is the perfect person to make the case. Tennis may need to figure out how to end earlier, but after a night like this, it\u2019s hard to argue the sport itself needs to become any less compelling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Andy Roddick isn\u2019t sorry about what happened at the US Open Tuesday night into Wednesday morning. 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