Father of ball

The father of an Australian Open ball-boy has called for a curfew to protect young teenagers from the strain of extreme late-night finishes after Andy Murray’s win over Thanasi Kokkinakis finished past 4am on Friday morning.

Children as young as 13 were working on Margaret Court Arena until 4.05am on Friday morning, as Murray battled through the longest match of his career. 

Afterwards, Murray told reporters that “If my child was a ball-kid for a tournament and they're coming home at five in the morning, as a parent, I'm snapping at that. It's not beneficial for them. It's not beneficial for the umpires, the officials. I don't think it's amazing for the fans. It's not good for the players.” 

Damien Saunder, the president of Bendigo Tennis Club, told Telegraph Sport about his 15-year-old son Flynn’s experience on Rod Laver Arena last year, which involved working at a 3hr 23min night match between Stefanos Tsitsipas and Taylor Fritz.

“We got back home at around 1am,” said Saunder, “and then you’re so wired after all the excitement that it’s hard to sleep. I remember having to get on a 6am call to California the next morning with my eyes hanging out of my head, and I think Flynn slept until 10am before I rustled him out of bed. But he was definitely wrecked the next day, and then we had to set off at noon for his next shift. 

“Overall, it was a positive experience for us, but there comes a time when you have to ask ‘Is that suitable for the ball-kids?” And for everyone else, because how do thousands of people get home? I know players don’t like coming back the next day and losing their day off, but that’s what can happen when it rains or in extreme heat. I feel like we should look after our main actors here and decide we won’t go past 2am, say.” 

Voices around the tennis world expressed their alarm at the scenes played out on Margaret Court Arena on Thursday night. “This is crazy to have players play to this hour at this level with so much at stake,” said John McEnroe on Eurosport. “To me it's just absurd. It's going to be a match people talk about, but it's also a match that greatly affects Andy's chances of going deeper in the tournament.”