Putting the best players and the most compelling matches during primetime on the biggest courts to create an eye-popping order of play can seem, on the surface, like child’s play.
But, this week’s draws at the National Bank Open presented by Rogers are proof that the tennis scheduling process is a complex daily exercise. It’s like making a puzzle with no picture to follow and the pieces don’t fit exactly the way you want them to.
A total of 21 players started the event entered in both the ATP singles and doubles draws in Montreal this year which is great news for the fans who can see the top players more often, but which can also cause headaches for the schedule makers.
On Thursday for example, Jannik Sinner, Daniil Medvedev, and Jordan Thompson, who played second-seeded Alexander Zverev in round two, all had to play singles and doubles. Tennis rules dictate that players must play singles before doubles which is why the tournament’s top three seeds were scheduled for singles during the day session rather than splitting them up between day and evening.
“There’s a lot of elements to consider before being able to release an order of play with the goal always being to release it early enough to inform the fans on the next day’s schedule, but sometimes we do need to wait on some results before we can do so,” explained NBO Tournament Director Valérie Tétreault.
Other factors that heavily influence an order of play include anything from requests players themselves to the Tour supervisors, adequate rest time between matches, international and domestic broadcasters who want the highest viewership possible for marquee matches, the weather forecast, and the new rule implemented in 2024 which stipulates that no match can start after 11 p.m. on any given night.
“We make sure to somehow find a middle ground between everybody’s best interests,” added Tétreault.
Peeling back the layers reveals that it’s not as easy as the pros who have mastered the art of making tennis schedules often make it look.
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