25 January,2018 08:45 AM IST | Melbourne | AFP
Czech Karolina Pliskova
Dejected sixth seed Karolina Pliskova said Australian Open organisers should do away with late-night/early morning matches after crashing out in the quarter-finals yesterday. Pliskova was trampled 6-3, 6-2 by World No. 1 Simona Halep in a match that started just before 4:00 pm yesterday. She complained about her fourth-round match with Barbora Strycova.
The match started at around 11pm on Monday and stretched to three sets and 2hr 41min until nearly 2am on Tuesday. "I think just these late night matches they should cancel," Pliskova told reporters after her drubbing on Rod Laver Arena yesterday. "I went to sleep at seven in the morning yesterday," she lamented. By then her quarter-final opponent Halep had been tucked up in bed all night, having played her match against Naomi Osaka earlier. "I put alarm at 12 (noon), just to try to have a normal day," Pliskova said. "I went to hit. Overall after was fine. But still it changed a little bit. Today was a day match. It's completely different. Every match for me was different."
This year had already seen a new record for the latest start to a match at the Australian Open when Daria Gavrilova's second-round match against Elise Mertens began 11:59pm.
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