How the quarter-final got there: on Arthur Ashe Stadium, the three matches scheduled before Shelton’s all went the distance. Aryna Sabalenka against Linda Noskova, Jessica Pegula against Emma Navarro, and Frances Tiafoe’s quarter-final in between. Last point at 3.34am.
Tiafoe had finished his own match around 7pm on Tuesday, in five sets against Alex Michelsen. Two days off for Shelton, no extra day for anyone: Friday evening, 7pm local time, the two Americans meet.
Finishing at 3.34am and playing again two days later, technically, I know the file. Saturday the club championship overruns, you get home at 1am, and Sunday at 9am you’re third singles on court 4, with the strip light flickering. The difference with Shelton is that nobody gives me two days, they give me a coffee. Two practice sessions away, mind you. And the strings, nobody talks about that: after a short night you lose three kilos of tension in your head, not in the racket.
On recovery, Matt Little, Andy Murray’s former fitness trainer, said: “He’ll have to be napping to catch up some sleep. On the nutritional side, he’ll be making sure he gets as many carbs and as much protein as he can in for that next match, and trying to get back to a bit of a routine. It’s about making sure you can optimise the hydration and get as much sleep as possible without completely going into a full slumber.”
Tiafoe gave his view on the long format: “Do I love five-setters? Absolutely not. But it’s tennis, man. I grew up watching so many incredible five-setters. Novak-Rafa, Federer-Rafa, epic five-setters that go on for hours and hours. That’s the history of the game.”
The nap, I theorised it in Kitzbühel in ’92. Nobody listened, and here we are.
The rest of the fortnight comes down to two numbers: over the first seven nights, three matches finished after 2am and three more after 1am. Venus Williams and Sofia Kenin started their first-round match at 0.13am.
It’s true, we checked: BBC Sport.
