2008 was Andy Murray’s breakout year.  He reached the quarters of Wimbledon.  He fizzled at the Olympics, but arguably, Nadal was fatigued from playing the Olympics, so Murray had a shot at beating him in the US Open.  In 2008, a huge storm was moving its way up the East Coast of the US, and for hours, it had managed to avoid crossing New York City.  Organizers pushed the start time of the first semifinal between Federer and Djokovic to 11 AM which was a lethargic affair for Djokovic who had been booed for criticizing Andy Roddick in the previous round.  Officials had hoped to start the Nadal-Murray match after the conclusion of the first semi, but due to inclement weather, they rushed them on a different court.

Even so, the semifinal was delayed after the second set with Murray up two sets to none.  Nadal would come back the next day to win the third set, but Murray won the fourth.  The finals were pushed to Monday.

Since then, another Olympics has come and gone, and the US Open has yet to finish on Monday as scheduled.  Rain, especially late in the second week, has caused every US Open final to be played on Monday.  This year, they might have played on Sunday, but given the grueling way the sport has been played, especially whenever Nadal plays Djokovic, that extra day of rest seems critical.

Monday finals are, of course, problematic.  Given that the US Open is not ready to have finals that start at night and potentially end past midnight, they’ve had to start the finals around 4:30 while there’s still some daylight.  The downside is that it’s a working day in the US, so viewership would drop off.  Other Slams have their men’s semis on a Friday, but the US Open likes the idea of holding its semis on a Saturday.

Another possibility is to hold the US Open a week earlier.  This would put the finals on Labor Day Monday.  However, the US Open probably does its best business in that middle weekend, and there would be far fewer fans showing up for the finals.

The ATP is apparently against the idea, though it’s not clear right now why that is.