Speed up the players!

[Wallaby]

Long matches are not caused by problems with the courts, or the balls, or the racquets. It's the players!

The Djokovich/Nadal final had 369 points in it - it took 353 minutes of playing time. The women's final was fairly similar (obviously much shorter). Most of the time was spent by players wiping away sweat and/or having a drink - after every bloody point! Come on guys, you get to sit down after every two games - can't it wait?

Someone measured it - Djokovich averaged 33 seconds between points on his serve - I'm sure Nadal was the same. The rule is 25 seconds.

They should never have brought in the rule in the first place. It was introduced because a few players were taking a bit of time - gamesmanship, if you like - and so the ATP thought they could do with a hurry-up. As a result, instead of speeding up play, it meant every player started taking the full 25 seconds allowed - and now they are stretching it. What's the betting that if they take some action, they won't start enforcing the rule - they'll extend the allowable time to 35 seconds?

Watch some old footage on Youtube - the players didn't fanny around between points in the 60s.

 

[Larry the Liquidator]

My suggestion is this. As soon as the point has ended, the chair umpire presses a button which sets off a timer. The timer clock could be displayed on the wall behind both baselines so both players can see it. At the 25 second mark, if the player has not served the ball to start the next point, a buzzer will automatically sound and the server is automatically faulted and only has a second serve to come. If it happens again, double fault and the point goes to the receiver. By doing it through a buzzer system, the onus is taken from the umpire and it would stop the server abusing the umpire. If the server serves before 25 seconds, the umpire disengages the timer as the ball is served to stop the timer clock ticking over on both walls and to stop it buzzing mid point. If the lack of serve before 25 seconds is the fault of the receiver, the point is automatically given to the server. If the lack of serve is because of the crowd or mother nature eg a bird or a large insect lands on the court, then the umpire can use some discretion. This ought to speed things up in between points.

 

[Dr Awkward]

The reason they take so long between points is because they need to recover from ridiculously long points that are caused by ridiculously slow courts.