Publications
Partners
New York - Rafael Nadal realises he has little or no input into the situation, but the Spanish second seed remains annoyed about the Monday men's final planned for this edition - and in 2014 - at the US Open.
The decision to stretch the major into a third week does not sit well with Nadal, who has won an ATP-leading nine titles in 2013. The men's final has been played on a Monday evening anyway for the past five years due to rain and the lack of a roof anywhere around the grounds.
That situation is due to change sometime around the turns of the decade, according to US federation officials, who have unveiled a renovation plan for the ageing National Tennis Centre costing $550 million.
"The final is on Monday. It's not anything new because last couple of years the finals were on Monday. It's more fair have the final on Monday, have a day off between the semi-finals and finals. But at the same time is one more day for the tournament.
"It's not normal to finish a tournament on Monday, it's nicer to finish on Sunday. That's my opinion."
Officials went to the Monday completion - and there are no guarantees that weather will not intervene anyway for a sixth consecutive year - in order to finally give men a day off between semis and finals. For decades, American television had dictated Saturday semi-finals and a Sunday final, a killer schedule in the modern game.
"We were finishing the finals here on Sunday, playing Saturday and Sunday. Every player knows that is something that was not fair. If one player have match like I had, for example, in the final of Australia against Djokovic (six hours), it's better the next day to go home rather than go on court. It is something that's not fair."
The Open still insists, along with the French Open, on staging the first round of play over three days instead of the more organised two. That makes for an untidy schedule and chaos in the case of rain, such as has already happened this week.
