Boris Becker tears into 'unprofessional' French Open as calls for unusual rule grow

Boris Becker has branded the French Open “unprofessional” after allowing Novak Djokovic to play until 3.07am in his five-set victory over Lorenzo Musetti. The second Grand Slam of the year has been plagued by delays due to heavy weather, but despite the roof closing on Court Philippe Chatrier, Djokovic was still forced to play until the early hours of Sunday morning.

The 24-time Major champion came back to win 7-5 6-7 (6-8) 2-6 6-3 6-0 and was undeterred by the late finish, even asking the Parisian crowd for an invitation to a party, but several complaints have been made over the latest-ever finish at the French Open.

The likes of Iga Swiatek, Coco Gauff and Jamie Murray were all disappointed by the scheduling and focused on how a player’s work is not done at the end of the match, citing media obligations and a necessary warm-down routine which could be disrupted.

Aside from the players, plenty of staff on-site were forced to stay longer than expected without a Wimbledon-esque curfew, with many likely to have to return in the morning for the next day’s action.

Former British player and now commentator Mark Petchey believes that defending his French Open crown would be Djokovic’s “greatest achievement ever” regarding singles events, having overcome the disadvantage of a late finish. He also called for the final to be pushed back a day, a highly unorthodox rule change, as all four Grand Slams currently culminate on a Sunday.

Petchey wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter): “If @DjokerNole wins @rolandgarros it will be his greatest achievement ever in a single event. Madness to finish at 3am from a recovery point of view. When a tournament is struggling this much to catch up through no fault of its own, they should just call a Monday Final early so this doesn’t happen.”

Becker agreed with Petchey and called out the “unprofessional” tournament, cautioning that no other sport forced their elite talents to play at such a late time. “Mark, you make very good point,” he wrote in reply.

“Think it’s mad and frankly unprofessional from the organisers to allow matches past 1am …which other sport has to deal with something similar? Maybe boxing but they have 1 fight every 6 month!”