New York tennis organisers stride into equality row by giving men's semi-finals preferential billing
Having postponed Thursday’s matches as a gesture of protest against American police brutality, the organisers of the Western & Southern Open in New York rode straight into an equality row when they gave Friday’s men’s semi-finals preferential billing on Louis Armstrong Stadium.
Forecasts of afternoon thunderstorms led the women’s semi-finals to be scheduled in parallel at 11am. But the men are to go on later, in the higher-profile television slots, and also to play on a bigger court. When the WTA action begins this morning, American time, the Grandstand court will host 2018 US Open champion Naomi Osaka (who prompted the 24-hour suspension of play with her own conscientious objection).
Meanwhile,JJohanna Konta and her latest opponent – former world No 1 Victoria Azarenka – have been shunted out to Court 10. Both those matches may well be over by 1pm, at which point the men are scheduled to arrive on Louis Armstrong Stadium.
The first semi-final pits Stefanos Tsitsipas, the fourth seed, against Andy Murray’s conqueror Milos Raonic. Then Novak Djokovic – who has looked more and more fluent with each passing round – has been pencilled into the headline slot. Crucially, Armstrong has a retractable roof.
The apparent prioritisation of the men – who earn more from this tournament than their female counterparts – prompted screeds of critical posts on social media last night. “I believe that this order of play deserves an explanation,” wrote Patrick Mouratoglou, Serena Williams’s coach, on Twitter. At the time of writing, none had been offered.
Meanwhile, the draw for Monday’s US Open was released without fanfare. On the men’s side, Andy Murray will play Japanese left-hander Yoshihito Nishioka, the world No 48. On the women’s, the computer threw up an early battle of the Brits – a phrase that Jamie Murray used to market two entertaining exhibition events in July. Heather Watson has never won a main-draw match at the US Open in eight attempts, and her latest first-round assignment – against Konta, ironically – is another daunting one.
These two Fed Cup team-mates have spent a fair bit of time hitting together, but their three official encounters on the match court all went the way of Konta. Indeed, Watson has yet to win a set, although she did retire with an injury early in their first meeting – at a second-tier tournament in Barnstaple seven years ago.
What is more, Konta has been in ferocious form at the Western & Southern Open this week. Speaking after her sparkling 6-4, 6-3 victory over Maria Sakkari on Wednesday night, Thomas Hogstedt, her new coach, sounded delighted by what he had seen to date.
“Johanna is very well rounded,” Hogstedt told reporters over a Zoom conference call. “She doesn’t really have any weakness. I like the kind of personality she is. “She likes to work hard and improve,” he added. “So she reminds me a lot of the players that I had much success with, with Maria Sharapova, Li Na, Caroline Wozniacki.”
Finally, the most prolific doubles partnership in the modern history of men’s tennis has been dissolved. Bob and Mike Bryan – the 42-year-old twins from California – announced on Thursday that they are retiring. “We just both feel it in our guts that it is the right moment,” said Mike in an interview with the The New York Times. “At this age, it takes so much work to go out there and compete.”
Mouratoglou later seemed to accept the organisers’ explanation – which was that the women needed to go on earlier in order to have sufficient rest before their final tomorrow. But others pointed out that the whole arrangement is set up on the basis that the men must take top billing. The upshot is that, as at last year’s French Open, Konta finds her semi-final banished to the boondocks.
