Jack Draper has joined Carlos Alcaraz in slamming ATP‘s new rule, which makes the players rush due to how time is counted between rallies.
Most tennis players who are competing today grew up playing tennis in a certain way, so many of the new changes can be quite tricky to process. Many of them had to get used to getting their own towels or adjust to many other changes, including the serve clock.
Players have 25 seconds between points to do their routine before play continues. Generally, it starts counting after the umpire announces the score, but the ATP has been recently trialing a new method where the clock starts automatically three seconds after the previous point ends.
That’s a bit problematic because it shortens the time between points, as it now doesn’t depend on when the umpires announce the score. Carlos Alcaraz thinks it rushes players, as he complained about it following his loss to Draper, and the Brit now joined him after his own loss to Tommy Paul at the 2024 Cinch Championships.
“Today was the first time I kind of noticed it, I suppose. Yeah, I don’t know how I got a sort of time violation on that point, because I felt like I was very quick. Maybe we played the point and I decided to go to the other side to get the towel and come back, but I’m never intentionally taking my time too long.”
Alcaraz pointed out that it’s not a great solution because points vary. Sometimes, he’ll finish it off at the net, after which he has to go back to the baseline for the towel, get the balls, and check which ones he’s going to use.
It’s all very rushed, according to the Spaniard, and Draper agrees, but ultimately, it’s a rule, so he’ll try to respect it.
“I did feel quite rushed today, and I wasn’t trying to take too long or anything. I’m not going to get annoyed because that’s just the rules, isn’t it? Gives me a time violation, you can give me a time violation. Maybe they are trialling it and they’ll change it if they’re giving a lot of time violations for no reason.”
