Melbourne  - Roger Federer certainly revels in the spotlight. But the world number two would like to see women start shouldering more of the late-night scheduling load at the Australian Open.

The Swiss played his fair allotment of night-time thrillers at this edition. But after following a long woman's match, a men's contest can end at 2 am in a worst case scenario - well past a civilised hour.

The president of the ATP Player Council believed equal prize money (1.3 million dollars for each champion) should mean equal responsibility.

"I think it would be nice to come up with a concept that, maybe, the guys get a 7:30 start match one time," said Federer. "Because if the ladies play long, we get, what, 10
(pm). It gets late for fans, for the media, for everybody."

"You might have the greatest match taking place at 2 am. Especially if you have a featured match on the men's side, maybe you want to start that at 7:30.

"I think that's something that everybody is considering. I think it would be nice if they would sort of consider that in all the grand slam tournaments, especially the ones that have night sessions." (dpa)