Interminable U.S. Open Night Sessions Are Bad For Everyone Except Me

Two hours after Tuesday night lapsed into Wednesday morning in the Eastern time zone, Alexander Zverev served out his grueling U.S. Open first-round matchup against Lorenzo Sonego. The final match of the night was a real thriller, with the top seed and the feisty Italian challenger letting each other have it for nearly five hours, on and on until Sonego stopped being able to hit a backhand with any zip and, at the exact right moment to avoid a catastrophic upset, Zverev remembered how to serve. As he watched a desperate Sonego forehand sail long to seal the match, Zverev raised his arms and stood still, courting the crowd. The tournament’s top seed took a moment to soak in the quiet applause of what felt like 500 stragglers remaining in the cavernous, mostly empty Arthur Ashe Stadium.

The first three nights of play at this year’s U.S. Open have all gone late. Night sessions are composed of two matches in each of the two stadia—Louis Armstrong, which is good, and Arthur Ashe, which is Arthur Ass—that begin at 7 p.m. ET and end at some point in the wee hours of the next day. By splitting the day’s play into two distinct sessions, the U.S Open can sell more tickets and ensure that at least the first of the two stadium matches begins right at primetime. Every Grand Slam tournament besides Wimbledon does this. However, because this is the U.S. Open and takes place in the U.S., it amounts to sacrificing quality to appease rich people and putting match flow at the mercy of ringlight-wielding influencers, and thus is more galling. While not every night will go late and end up pissing everyone off, tennis matches go long all the time; when it happens in one of the late matches, it can ruin everyone’s night and tournament in the process.

Everyone except me, that is. If you live on the West Coast, life is good. This shit is awesome. I am persecuted Europeanly all year round, waking up at 6 a.m. Pacific time to watch the Giro d’Italia, watching a good chunk of the tennis season after the fact, and missing half of my favorite team’s Premier League matches because I have the immense fortune of living in the best place in the world. But the U.S. Open is the perfect event for me. Play starts at 8 a.m. PT and extends until 11 p.m., allowing Californians to watch tennis the entire time they’re awake.