Daniil Medvedev insists players agree Australian Open night sessions are "asking for trouble"

By SABC Sport
4th January 2026

Daniil Medvedev has doubled down on his criticism of Australian Open night scheduling, saying he feels other players would share his concerns.

On Friday, Medvedev argued that the first match of the night session at the Melbourne Grand Slam should start an hour earlier.

"I'm not against playing at night, don't get me wrong, but starting the first match at 7pm is just asking for trouble," said the 2021 US Open champion.

"When you have one match of five sets, and both of them went for five for me, it is a bit too late to start at 7pm. They should be starting at 6pm."

The former world No 1, who is currently ranked 13th, will begin his 2026 season at the Brisbane International, where he is the top seed.

In his pre-tournament press conference in Brisbane, Medvedev was asked if he had received any response from players about his comments on the Australian Open schedule.

"No, between players, at least that's my feeling, we don't really talk too much about what other players said in the press," said the 29-year-old.

"But I do think that if you ask other players, I don't think anyone would be, like, No, let's start at 8:00. Probably everyone would be happy to start at 6:00.

"I know that then it can be a problem for the day matches, but I'm pretty sure that it's better to put it at 6:00, and if we need to start at 7:00 because of the day match, okay, but then there is a chance you can still start at 6:00 which would be better to not finish at 3:00 in the morning.

"But I always said that even by saying this: I prefer to play at night. So whenever. 7:00, 6:00, second, I'm happy to play at night."

Medvedev will face world No 55 Marton Fucsovics in the first round at the ATP 250 event.

That is not even the Russian's latest finish time in Melbourne, though, as his five-set second round win over Emil Ruusuvuori at the 2024 Australian Open finished at 3:40am.

Medvedev's loss to Rafael Nadal in an epic five-set 2022 Australian Open final lasting five hours and 24 minutes - the third-longest Grand Slam final ever - ended at 11am.