Djokovic spoke afterwards and didn’t necessarily agree that they were reasonably long saying that clay at Roland Garros is a toilw when you play for nearly four hours. “I don’t know if I agree with your comment that they were “reasonably long.” When you play a three-and-a-half-hour match on clay, that’s long and very exhausting, at least in my opinion,” said Djokovic in her press conference.
“Physically, I spent quite a bit of energy today in very hot and challenging conditions. It was obviously my fault that I didn’t finish in straight sets because I was a break up twice in the third set and had match points. I became too passive on those points.
“He took his chances and got the crowd support he was looking for, so the momentum shifted. But I managed to regroup in the fourth set.
“It was a very challenging match. The scoreline maybe doesn’t fully reflect how tough it was. I think he played at a very high level. He was pumped from the first point and had very clear tactical intentions.
“He’s a fighter. I had never faced him before, but I’d watched some of his matches. He competes really well. Overall, it’s a very good win for me, although staying almost four hours on court is not ideal. Still, when you win, that’s always positive.”
Novak Djokovic won his 101th title at Hellenic Championship
Lack of heat rule
But he also touched upon the lack of a heat rule at Roland Garros with the French Open deciding instead to close the roof when it gets to a certain temperature instead of suspending games with temparatures at sweltering points this week in Europe.
He said he was actually shocked there wasn’t such a rule in Europe unlike Australian Open and other such tournaments with a heat index. “I actually didn’t realise there wasn’t really a heat rule here. I thought every Grand Slam had one, but then someone told me Roland Garros doesn’t.
“I guess they do have a rule, but the roof isn’t really part of it. I don’t know all the details — some kind of index or formula.
It’s always a difficult discussion because if you close the roof on one court, everyone else is still playing outside in the heat, and that’s not really fair either. Of course, personally, it would be great for me if I were playing on centre court with the roof closed on such a hot day, but I still don’t think that’s fair.
In Australia, we’ve seen play suspended for one, two or even three hours until the heat index comes down again. Honestly, I think that’s fair.
At Grand Slams, it generally shouldn’t be a major issue because there are so many courts, lights and scheduling options. You can move matches around and still have crowds and good conditions.
At smaller tournaments without those facilities, it’s obviously a different discussion. But even on the ATP Tour, there are tournaments like Umag in Croatia where matches start later in the afternoon because of the heat and continue late into the night.
Is it ideal to finish after midnight? No, it’s not. But if you have extreme heat on certain days, maybe that’s something worth considering.