The U.S. Open is increasing to fifteen days this yr, shifting to a Sunday begin for the primary time within the Open period that started in 1968.
Followers who subscribed for ticket info from the USTA had been knowledgeable of the change for the season’s final Grand Slam tennis match — and its new dates of Aug. 24 to Sept. 7 — through emails despatched Wednesday. The U.S. Tennis Affiliation confirmed the extra day of main-draw motion for the 2025 match in a information launch.
The additional day places the U.S. Open consistent with the Australian Open, which switched its begin from Monday to Sunday a yr in the past, and the French Open, which was the primary tennis main to make the transfer when it added a fifteenth day in 2006.
The primary spherical at Flushing Meadows will as soon as once more be unfold over three days — Sunday, Monday, Tuesday — however in any other case, the USTA stated, “No further adjustments to the singles main draw schedule after the first round are planned.” Below the previous 14-day format, the match accomplished the opening spherical throughout three days till 2015, when it was reduce to 2.
This transfer leaves Wimbledon because the final Grand Slam occasion that begins on a Monday and has motion on simply 14 days. As it’s, the grass-court match solely is that lengthy as a result of the All England Membership added play on the center Sunday in 2022; earlier than that, with that historically an off day, there have been solely 13 days of play on the oldest of the tennis majors.
The U.S. Open’s swap provides it an opportunity to extend income through ticket gross sales, in fact, and to get extra publicity for the game. The just-concluded Australian Open, for instance, has set attendance information in each of its 15-day editions.
The USTA stated its high occasion had “record-breaking attendance in 2024.”
By now, gamers are used to Sunday begins at Slams, however when the French Open began the 15-day pattern, some — together with Roger Federer and Maria Sharapova, who each performed on that preliminary Sunday in 2006 — had been vocal about not loving the swap.
“I asked if I could play later. The answer was, ‘You’re playing Sunday, fourth match,’” Sharapova stated on the time.
“How did it make me feel? Well, it doesn’t make you feel great when you know that the French federation, all they’re thinking about is selling tickets, making money and about (French) players,” she stated. “I mean, can’t be too happy about that.”
