Say goodbye to Super Saturday, as we have known it. With its meteorological and emotional intensity, its drama kings and drama queens, Super Saturday has been the centrepiece of the United States Open for nearly three decades.
But this day of days is heading toward a
multimillion-dollar extreme makeover of unknown structure. Next year the Open will be scheduling a day of rest between the semifinals and the finals for men and women.
"You have to start with the premise that players will get a day off between the semifinals and the finals," Sean McManus, the chairman of CBS Sports, said Friday in a telephone interview.
McManus listed two options for the men - semifinals on Friday and final on Sunday, or semifinals on Saturday and final on Monday night - with the women's finalists also getting a day off between matches, playing on Thursday and Saturday or on Friday and Sunday.
Men's final moved to Monday
The US Open men's final was switched from Sunday to Monday for the fifth year in a row after Saturday's semifinal between Novak Djokovic and David Ferrer was suspended because of bad weather.
Tournament director David Brewer announced play had been called off for the rest of Saturday because of an approaching thunderstorm.
"It was not too difficult a decision to make," Brewer said. "The forecast is for severe weather and we need to give people the time to clear out."