Cold and dark reality of watching tennis at 3am – Coco Gauff is right, it is not healthy

Don’t get me wrong. Night sessions in Melbourne and New York – two of the other four majors – are magnificent occasions. But those are completely different climates, with average night temperatures of around 16 or 17 degrees. The equivalent figure for Paris in May is just 11.

Teenage sensation Mirra Andreeva put it well on Saturday evening. “What I’ve seen is that when you play a late match, there’s not a lot of people and you’re, like, in the dark. It’s so depressing. No one is watching, and it’s cold.”

While night-session tickets are specific to Court Philippe Chatrier, this disastrous innovation has changed the way the whole tournament operates.

Until floodlights arrived around the grounds in 2021, Roland Garros employed a natural curfew, which felt appropriate for a tournament played on this earthiest of surfaces.

Every evening, a series of mini-dramas used to unfold, as players argued with umpires over whether the light was playable or not. Oddly enough, the person trailing on the scoreboard tended to be having a harder time sighting the ball.

I have particularly fond memories of a five-setter from 2015, when a young Kyle Edmund fought back to beat home favourite Stephane Robert as shadows lengthened across Court No 7. As the fans bayed, and an incognito Andy Murray tiptoed into the stands, the dying light provided an extra frisson of suspense. Good times. All thrown away as part of the giant Roland Garros sell-out.

We haven’t even mentioned the players’ plight yet. Post-midnight tennis (now the norm at every slam apart from Wimbledon, which still observes Merton Council’s 11pm curfew) can mess with your head, your body and your sleep cycle.