Jamie Murray, the former doubles world No. 1 and current tournament director of the ATP 500 event at the Queen’s Club, was in Sky Sports’ commentary booth on Wednesday, expecting to call matches.
That didn’t quite go to plan, with play delayed due to rain. As a tournament director, he knows how these delays work. And with some matches now cancelled and postponed until tomorrow, Murray explained what fans could expect from Thursday’s schedule in Miami.
“It probably depends on how many match courts they can put in play tomorrow. On the schedule today, they’ve got eight courts. They might have the potential to do 10 or 11 courts. It also depends on how many are set up for electronic line calling, hawkeye, all the sort of stuff as well. We’ll see, but there’s going to be a lot of matches for sure,” he said.
“I think, ideally, they’ll try to get through everything just so that they’re back on track and players aren’t necessarily having to play back-to-back or even double up on one day. I think they’re far away from that. The good thing is there are a lot of days in the tournament as well. They’re not playing five-set matches as well for the guys, so for them to play back-to-back three-setters, I don’t think it’s much of an issue. And, to be honest, I think half the draw would rather be doing that anyway! I don’t think they like the days off.”