07/02/2012 00:17 CEST - Rassegna internazionale

US Open 2012, confermato il Super Saturday (New York Times)

The Australian Open, once the weakest of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments, now has two stadiums with retractable roofs and a third one on the way. Player response continues to be positive. 

“Of the four Grand Slams, it is the tournament that behaves better toward the players,” Rafael Nadal said after losing in the men’s final last Monday. 

Such compliments represent quite a contrast with the mood at the U.S. Open last year, where the lack of a roof caused further rain delays and where scheduling issues continue to cause resentment among the stars, including Nadal, Roger Federer and Andy Murray.

“Look, I understand the players; I understand their frustration,” Jim Curley, the U.S. Open tournament director, said in an interview in Melbourne. “We’re trying to be sensitive to their concerns. It was a long year, a long year.”

Curley expressed confidence that U.S. Open officials would be able to resolve one of the players’ main concerns by scheduling a day of rest between the men’s semifinals and the final by 2013. With the existing schedule, in place since the 1970s, the men play their semifinals on Saturday and the final on Sunday, although rain delays have caused the men’s final to be played on Monday the last four years.

“We’ve had Super Saturday at the U.S. Open for over 30 years, and our fans love it, our television viewers love it, broadcasters, sponsors, everyone loves it,” Curley said. “Even back then, the players liked it, but the game has changed a lot. It’s a lot more physical and to be able to come back on consecutive days with a semi and a final is a real challenge, and so we get that. We understand that, and now it’s just a matter of working through all the various issues we have to make that happen.”

Despite player unrest, Curley said change remained unlikely at the tournament this year because of commercial agreements already in place for 2012. “I think our goal remains to try to come up with something for next year, as in 2013,” he said. “There are so many things that need to be worked through.”

He said CBS, which has televised the U.S. Open in the United States since 1968 and holds the rights through 2014, was receptive to the idea of altering the schedule even though its latest contract, signed in 2011, reportedly stipulated that the final weekend schedule remain unchanged.

“CBS has been a very good partner on this and really wants to work with us to find a solution,” Curley said. “Because they recognize the issue as well, which is good news.”

In an interview before this season, Federer said the players were guardedly optimistic.

“I guess it’s a bit of wait and see and just proving it to us I guess a little bit,” Federer said. “But at the same time, I think it’s been a good move for them to listen to us, because I just think it’s common sense. I just think it’s logical. You just can’t expect that guys can have three days off after their first round and have no day off after the semis. Maybe you’ve dominated the entire field, you know, five matches in a row and then you get into a tough, tough Saturday and then all of the sudden you’re completely out of sorts for the Sunday match.”

In Melbourne, Curley said he had not met with the game’s leading players since the Open last year but met in November at the A.T.P. World Tour Finals in London with the tour administrator, Andre Silva, the chief player officer who works directly with the player council and the A.T.P. board of directors.

“During a Grand Slam or during the finals, you try to give the players the space that they need, so there will be other times for us to sit down and have face-to-face conversations,” Curley said, mentioning the events in March in Indian Wells, California, and Miami as possibilities.

Curley said Open organizers remained undecided on whether change would mean shifting to a Friday-Sunday schedule for the men’s semifinals and final or whether it would mean a Saturday-Monday timeline. He said he expected that if no changes are made this year, the first round would continue to be played over three days, only eventually downshifting to two days if the Friday-Sunday option is chosen. The French Open, which lasts 15 days instead of the customary 14, is the only other Grand Slam event to play the opening round over three days (...)