I was lucky enough to go to the evening sessions at the O2 of the ATP World Tour Finals in London earlier this week – attending on both Monday and Tuesday.
Overall I had a great time – not exactly hindered by the fact that I had superb seats. While the upper level seats were cheap, I’m not certain I’d want to go up there and attempt to keep my eyes on a 130mph serve.

Monday night saw Novak Djokovic beat Nikolay Davydenko in three sets (more on this later). And there was lots of Serbian support inside the arena – and some Russian support too. But despite that loss, Davydenko was the man who would end up reaching the final today.

On Tuesday there was the really tasty fixture of Roger Federer v Andy Murray. Once again, this went to three sets with Federer really raising his game after Murray had taken the first set.

Overall it was good fun, with one small exception – the match timings.
The evening sessions began at 7pm with a doubles fixture. This was followed each evening, not before 8.45pm by the singles match. To speed along the doubles fixtures, they play a “no advantage” rule at deuce, whereby once deuce is reached, the receiving pair elect who will receive and the game is decided on that single point. The rights and wrongs of this, I’ll leave to others, but this is clearly to ensure matches finish on time as much as possible.
In Monday’s evening session, the doubles fixture still ran on a bit, with the result that Djokovic v Davydenko only actually started after 9pm. Djokovic isn’t the fastest player on the tour – bouncing the ball lots of times at every service.
The match was destined to run to three sets, with the result not in until 11.45pm. As we ran to North Greeenwich tube, we were implored not to because the last tube wasn’t until 12.16am and there was no need. But that didn’t allow for changes and connecting tubes and trains. I ended up getting home shortly after 1.30am as a result of all this, having to wait nearly 40 minutes for my final train home.
Even the following night’s action, which was over around an hour earlier, still saw me getting home at close to 1am. And I live in London!
The arena certainly emptied early on Monday, and even on Tuesday.
The O2 has this excellent tournament in London for the next four years. But they need to amend the timings. I can’t work out why 8.45pm is a good TV time for anywhere else in the world. Champions’ League fixtures start at 7.45pm and that seems to work well for most of continental Europe. It doesn’t help Asia particularly, but neither does 8.45pm. Even the US timings can’t be brilliant, taking place in the mid-afternoon. In which case, start the matches earlier.
With the best will in the world, the doubles weren’t well-watched, but if they got under way at 6pm, I’d make an effort to get there for them.
Lots of people travel long distances to watch tennis, and they should be able to stay to see the whole game. So switch the timings next year please!