Plans to implement a 25-second shot-clock at the Wimbledon Championships has triggered a critical response from two of the biggest names on the ATP Tour.
Officials at the All England Club are intending in the future to implement timer where players can monitor hot long they take between points. Encouraging them to stick within the rules of the tour. A shot-clock has already been used in grand slams at the US Open, as well as qualifying tournaments in Melbourne and Paris.
One player that is not in favour of such a move is world No.1 and Wimbledon second seed Rafael Nadal. The Spaniard has gained notoriety during his career for the time he takes between points. In 2017 he said the move was a great idea ‘if you don’t want a great show.’ Insisting that such a measure would impede on the quality of rallies played. A position he maintained when asked about the use of the shot-clock on Tuesday.
“If you want to see a quick game without thinking, well done,” said Nadal.
“If you want to keep playing in a sport that you need to think, you need to play with more tactics, you want to have long and good rallies, than of course you are going the wrong way.
“But seems like sometimes it is only about the business, so… I can’t support this because I don’t feel the matches that stay for the history of our sport went that quick.”
Regardless of Nadal scepticism, plans to implement it are ongoing. Wimbledon chief executive Richard Lewis has played down the significance of any change. Insisting that will have no impact of the Wimbledon rule book.
“There’s a general feeling that we should speed up when a match begins and ends,” AFP news quoted Lewis as saying.
“The shot-clock isn’t a rule change, that’s just something visible.”
Djokovic slams decision-making process
Novak Djokovic is another player to speak out about the move, but for a different reason. The Serbian 12th seed has blasted The All England Club for continuing to make decisions without any input from players. Djokovic, who is a member of the ATP Player Council, has previously criticised the French Open for the lack of involvement with players when it comes to the management of the courts.
“I obviously was not happy at all, as all the other players in the players council, for one very simple reason. Not because of the shot-clock, we could discuss that. It’s because we as players are never reached out, never advised.” Djokovic said following his win over Tennys Sandgren.
“We are not participating in the conversation or decision making. That’s something that is really frustrating, to be honest, from a player perspective.”
Maintaining an open mind about the implementation of a shot-clock, Djokovic believes that players need to be consulted on such matters. Arguing that such actions may have a different impact when they are applied to the main courts of a major.
“There was not too many negative comments about it. But it’s quite different if you introduce that to the show courts and main draw, playing best-of-five.” He said.
The ATP is contemplating rolling out the shot-clock on the tour as early as 2019. Chris Kermode, who is the CEO of the ATP, has previously spoken in favour of the move.
“To me, having a shot-clock, people have been talking about it for years and it’s like can we just do it or not do it? This is clearly let’s just do it.” He said last November.
At Wimbledon, Nadal will take on Mikhail Kukushkin in the second round. Meanwhile, Djokovic faces Argentina’s Horacio Zeballos.
