主辦單位表示有先問過兩位球員 還說她們都同意.. Venus, Jelena delayed for TV September 04, 2007 THE US Tennis Association has meddled with the competition schedule to gain increased television ratings, delaying the US Open quarter-final between Venus Williams and Jelena Jankovic to Thursday (AEST). Wimbledon champion Williams, the No.12 seed, and Jankovic, the No.3 seed from Serbia, had been scheduled to play tomiorrow (AEST), when Serena Williams, the No.8 seed, and world No.1 Justine Henin meet in the other quarter-final from their section of the draw. Australian Open champion Serena and French Open champion Henin will still play tomorrow, as planned, but Jankovic and Venus will play a day later, giving the winner one less rest day than their foe in the semi-finals on Saturday (AEST). Tournament officials said that Jankovic and Williams had both approved the plan, which will put their match, at night on Arthur Ashe stadium, 24 hours after the Serena-Henin showdown. "We would never have made this decision without talking to the players first," tournament spokesman Chris Widmaier said. "Both of the players not only liked it, they encouraged it. "I don't know if this has been done before. We're checking to see if it is unprecedented." Neither Henin nor Serena were consulted about the move, which gives their rivals an extra day to prepare for each other, and a less hectic Wednesday that now offers a better chance to study their potential rivals in action. "They were not talked to," Widmaier said. "We talked to the players who would be getting less rest." The switch is likely to see Jankovic play in front of a jam-packed crowd cheering for six-time grand slam winner Williams, and not a lesser Wednesday afternoon audience, playing at a time when many potential spectators are working. "We felt the Venus Williams-Jelena Jankovic match is more of a marquee match-up," Widmaier said. "We thought this was a good decision for the sport." The decision was certanly good for the US television network broadcasting the tournament, which was faced with a Thursday (AEST) devoid of women's star power after No.2 seed Maria Sharapova was eliminated. The decision means that No.4 seed Svetlana Kuznetsova from Russia will play unseeded Hungarian teen Agnes Szavay, and No.6 seed Anna Chakvetadze from Russia play No.18 seed Shahar Peer from Israel early on Thursday (AEST). Asked if the switch would have been made had a player more attractive to US TV audiences been playing on the opposite half of the draw, Widmaier said: "That's a good question. I can only talk about the conditions presented to us." --

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