Updates from first men’s semi-final at 8pm BST, 3pm EST
Andrew Lawrence: in praise of five-set tennis | Mail Billy
Zverev v Khachanov could of course go on beyond that 7pm timing – that is the nature of five-set tennis. The incoming Tennis Australia CEO, Andrew Abdo, suggested last month that tennis should rethink it’s best-of-five format for men’s grand slam matches to attract a younger audience.
Andrew Lawrence has, thankfully for us, launched to the defence of longer epics …
In tennis, a match that stretches on for hours and hours isn’t a drag. It’s an obvious marker of quality, an implied reason to tune in. And if engagement is the name of the game, the drama of a fifth act that holds the potential to maintain an audience, capture a new one and – in the case of the Shelton-Alcaraz quarter – extend the primetime viewing window on the West Coast should be an incentive for those committed to growing the game to embrace the five-setter even tighter, not abolish it.
As Americans at the US Open, two players who have spent their careers being reminded of how far American men’s tennis has fallen since its decades of dominance over the sport, and particularly of Andy Roddick’s triumph at the 2003 US Open, the last time an American man won a title here, the significance of this moment is doubly important to Tiafoe and Shelton. Unlike in their previous runs, there are no multiple grand-slam champions or all-time greats left in the draw, with the earlier semi-final featuring top seed Alexander Zverev against former top-10 player Karen Khachanov. All four can win this title.
