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The surprise – well, maybe not a shocking one – of the Winston-Salem semifinals is that No. 3 seed Sebastian Korda withdrew before his semifinal against Jiri Lehecka.
Korda did have a three-set win over Richard Gasquet earlier in the day Thursday – before the rain delays had other quarterfinals just getting on court around 11 p.m.
But it was only 2 1/2 hours, and he was through.
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Winston-Salem Open
Location: Winston-Salem NC
Category: ATP 250
Surface: Outdoor Hard
Dates: Aug. 20 – 26, 2023
Prize money: $850,680
Draws: S48 – D16
Friday, Aug. 25, 2023
Final results
Singles, semifinals
[5] Jiri Lehecka (CZE) def [3/WC] Sebastian Korda (USA) WALKOVER
[6] Sebastian Baez (ARG) def [1] Borna Coric (CRO) 63 67 (4) 76 (2)
Doubles, semifinals
[2] Lloyd Glasspool / Neal Skupski (GBR) def Marcelo Demoliner (BRA) / Matwe Middelkoop (NED) 67 (5) 62 [10-8]
Nathaniel Lammons / Jackson Withrow (USA) def [3] Hugo Nys (MON) / Jan Zielinski (POL) 76 (4) 64
Doubles, quarterfinal
Marcelo Demoliner (BRA) / Matwe Middelkoop (NED) def Romain Arneodo (MON) / Ariel Behar (URU) 62 75
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About Post Author
Would you be able to explain the rationale behind matches that are uncompleted the day before to be scheduled second on the next day? Wouldn’t tournaments want to get the previous day’s matches finished by having them play first up before starting the following day’s matches? Tks.
I think the biggest thing is that the one time slot where you KNOW when you’ll play is the first one of the day. Which is a fairly big thing. And when the order of play for the next day is already out, those players already have prepared to get up quite early to make that time slot, so it’s unfair to them to change it. They have to wake up early, get to the site early AND warm up early.
There are also rules about having a certain number of hours before playing the next day (although I don’t know if that applies to suspended matches; it probably does).
At any rate, in the case of the US Open qualifying today, the cancelled matches that are on first ALSO were Thursday matches. It’s just that they never got started. So they’re not “starting the following day’s matches” here.
They also were cancelled earlier than the matches on court that were eventually suspended. So the above-mentioned rest rule may well kick in.
The “following day’s matches”, in this case, are the final-round qualifying matches. And they are for the most part the last ones on each court today.
It’s going to be a struggle to get any of them done, from the look of things.
In Winston Salem, they’re actually putting on the suspended doubles first. But that’s also because they were suspended earlier in the evening Thursday to get the singles matches in. As well, that first, early time slot (if I recall) is set in stone for doubles at an ATP 250 anyway. It’s just that it’s not the expected semifinal.
It’s complex, but those are the major points.
Tks very much for the explanation. I’m sure glad that I am not one of the people who will ever be in charge of scheduling!