August 15, 2008 12:07 PM

Midnight at the tennis venue

By Chris Tomasson

Midnight at the Oasis.

Er, the tennis venue.

If you think it's crazy seeing the U.S. Open play matches until midnight, consider that at the Olympics on Friday night (make that Saturday morning), they started a tennis match at 12:41 a.m.

The match involving the Chinese women's doubles team of Yan Zi and Zheng Jie didn't end until after 2:30 a.m. I wonder if that made many Saturday morning papers.

With center court play having started at 4 p.m. Friday, that doubles match was the fourth and final one of the day. The first three were three-set thrillers, pushing back the schedule to a ridiculous hour.

It was close to 12:30 a.m. before the third match ended, with Spain's Rafael Nadal defeating Serbia's Novak Djokovic, 6-4, 1-6, 6-4. It probably helped Nadal playing at that late hour.

The Spanish are used to saying up late. At midnight, they're just settling into dinner.

Posted by Chris Tomasson at 12:07 PM | Comments (0)