Stanislas Wawrinka and John Isner to play on court three at the Australian Open

Stanislas Wawrinka (Google Images)

Scheduling matches for a major can be extremely difficult. Not many people would want to be put in that position.

However, one should question why one of the juiciest men’s singles matches for the third round of the 2020 Australian Open is only on court three on Saturday. That is where you will find the 15th ranked Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland versus the 19th ranked John Isner of the United States.

My only explanation is simple. The people in charge of scheduling must not like tiebreaks. Matches involving Isner tend to have a lot of them.

On paper, this looked to be the most thrilling third round match, and by placing it on court three, only 3,000 fans will be able to watch. There is also the issue with television. Most of the matches on the major courts (Rod Laver Arena, Margaret Court Arena, Melbourne Arena and the 1573 Arena) can be seen on television in many different countries. That is not the case for many of the matches on the smaller courts.

Isner and Wawrinka each have great grand slam success. Wawrinka is a three-time grand slam singles champion as he won the 2014 Australian Open, 2015 French Open, and 2016 United States Open. Isner meanwhile reached the semifinals of Wimbledon in 2018.

Head-to-head, Isner has the 3-1 advantage. However, this will be the first time the two players will have played against each other at a major. Wawrinka won the first meeting in the first round at the 2009 Rakuten Open in Tokyo 6-4, 6-4. The last three meetings have gone Isner’s way. The tall American beat Wawrinka in the semifinals of Belgrade in 2010 by a score of 7-5, 7-5. That match was followed by two Isner wins in the ATP Masters 1000 series. Isner beat Wawrinka in the first round of the Paris Indoor in 2011 by a score of 6-7, 7-5, 7-6 and then in the third round of Rome in 2017 by a score of 7-6, 6-4.

There is no doubt that love is a common term in tennis. It just so happens that Isner and Wawrinka did not get much of it from Australian Open schedulers on Saturday.