Roger Federer sees the return to a Sunday men’s final at the U.S. Open and the decision to build a roof as big improvements for the tournament.

The men's final has been played on a Monday for the past seven years due to weather-related interruptions and more recently, television arrangements. The men's semifinals have been moved to Friday, having previously been played before the women's final on Saturday. The initial structure for a roof has also been installed on Arthur Ashe Stadium, with construction to be completed following the tournament.

"It took a lot of meetings and convincing to be done," Federer told press before the event began.

"The problem was, before, it was Super Saturday and Sunday, and I know it was really popular with the fans, maybe media too, I’m not sure, but you could have 12 days of beautiful sunshine, and you could have one rain and everything would be all over the place."

Rain has interrupted the semifinals frequently in recent years. Having the semifinals and final on back-to-back days also meant that one or both players could be tired in the final.

"I think with the roof coming now you can sense all the players are really pumped up about that. It’s really exciting to see the U.S. Open taking huge strides forward," said Federer. "And then with the new schedule, basically a normal Grand Slam schedule, is great, I think, for everybody, and of course we’re thankful that this has been granted and that in the process everybody’s pleased about it.”