Craig Tiley, the newly appointed chief executive of the United States Tennis Association, told Sky Sports Tennis that the tournament will continue to feature two daytime matches and two evening matches at Flushing Meadows when the 2027 edition rolls around. Tiley, who stepped into the USTA CEO role earlier this year after a decade leading Tennis Australia, made it clear that he does not intend to overhaul the current scheduling formula. His comments come on the heels of a marathon quarter‑final that saw Ben Shelton battle five sets against world‑number‑one Carlos Alcaraz, a contest that did not reach its conclusion until 3:33 a.m.
local time on a Wednesday morning. The near‑five‑hour duel unfolded under the bright lights of New York’s premier tennis venue, leaving only a handful of fans awake to witness the dramatic finish on one of the sport’s biggest stages.
The late finish is not an isolated incident. In the first six days of the tournament, three matches ran past 2 a.m., and two additional matches stretched beyond 1 a.m. Players have long praised the electric atmosphere of night matches at the US Open, but the increasingly late endings have sparked a broader conversation about player welfare, prize‑money distribution, and the overall working conditions on the professional tour.
Other Grand Slam events have taken steps to curb excessively late play. Wimbledon enforces an 11 p.m. curfew, while the French Open limits its evening sessions to a single match.
The Australian Open, however, continues to face criticism for similarly late finishes, putting the US Open under heightened scrutiny. In addition to the scheduling debate, the tournament produced a flurry of headline‑making results. Alexander Zverev, the top seed, eliminated Shelton and advanced to the final, where he eventually claimed the championship in four sets.
British pairs Neal Skupski and Alfie Hewett secured doubles and wheelchair titles respectively, while Elena Rybakina dethroned two‑time champion Aryna Sabalenka to cement her position as world number one. Some observers have suggested moving the start of evening sessions to an earlier hour, arguing that New Yorkers who work regular day jobs need sufficient time to travel to Flushing Meadows after work. Organisers, however, must balance the logistical challenges of managing crowds for both day and night sessions while preserving the unique atmosphere that night tennis provides.
Tiley addressed the criticism directly, saying, "I hear from a lot of people that it finishes too late and then I say, okay, and your suggestion is? I don't get anything. You can't control the length of the match.
What's really interesting is in the last ten years the amount of tennis from when you hit a point to when a point stops has been about the same. But the length of the matches on the men's side has increased by an average of about 25 minutes. That's because we now have the shot clock so everyone is taking their time, and we have the towels here which takes a bit more time and so the whole length of it is a bit longer.
Not that much longer, but in fact the average time of the men's matches today is still not in the top four average times in the last ten years. While it feels really late, the reality is you've got to go and look at the data. But that being said, no one wants to finish at 3:30 a.m. in the morning, although the rest of the world in the daytime saw a pretty amazing match." He continued, "We really like the two days and two nights.
Two full sessions and you get a women's match and a great men's match, and that's what our fans are telling us. They can come out and see three, four, five hours of entertainment and if it goes really long like the other night, that's a great sporting ticket so I will keep it." The US Open’s social media accounts responded to the late‑night spectacle with a light‑hearted post inviting fans to fill in a blank and ask their employers for a day off, acknowledging the dedication required to stay up for such matches. The tweet read, "We understand how important showing up is, but sometimes you have to make time for things you're passionate about.
Carlos Alcaraz and Ben Shelton put on an absolute stellar performance during their US Open quarter‑final, and ______ was a fully committed fan who was completely locked in from start to finish." Another recurring suggestion in the debate is to shorten men’s matches in the early rounds to best‑of‑three sets. This proposal remains contentious because many purists view five‑set battles as a defining feature of Grand Slam tennis.
Frances Tiafoe voiced his support for retaining the traditional format, stating, "I think for the men's we should stick with three out of five. I don't know where the conversation is going, what people are leaning to.
Everyone is going to have an opinion, everyone is different. We've seen so many epics in five‑setters.
Do I love five‑setters? Absolutely not. There's a lot of times where I'm up two sets to love and I'd love to shake hands and go home. But it's tennis, man." Despite the ongoing discussions, the US Open will be broadcast live on Sky Sports starting August 30, with streaming options available on NOW and the Sky Sports app.
Fans can also enjoy related events such as the Laver Cup at The O2 in London later in September. The tournament’s commitment to its dual‑session format reflects a desire to balance tradition, fan experience, and the practical realities of hosting a world‑class sporting event in a city that never sleeps.