Carlos Alcaraz says he hasn’t spoken to anybody at the ATP about the shot clock rule after openly criticising it during a match earlier this year.
At the Qatar Open, the world No.1 was infuriated when he was issued a time violation for taking longer than the allotted 25 seconds between points. During his clash with Karen Khachanov, Alcaraz was hit with the penalty after going to get his towel following a lengthy rally. He argued with umpire Marija Cicak that the clock countdown should have started when he went to get his towel and not immediately after the rally ended. Promoting Cicak to reply, ‘I can’t invent more time.’
“This rule is always S***. It’s always the same. Always. Super unfair,” he said in a rare on-court outburst.
Alcaraz didn’t have any such issues during his latest clash against Grigor Dimitrov at Indian Wells, which he won 6-2, 6-3. After clinching victory, the top seed doubled down on his position about the shot clock rule but said there is no point speaking to officials about it.
“To be honest, I haven’t spoken to them. Nobody came to me to ask me my opinion about it,’ he told reporters.
“I don’t want to waste my time because there have been other situations where you go to complain or to give your opinion and then nothing changes at all, so I don’t want to waste my time.
“They already know my opinion. So let’s see if they’re gonna change it or not, but I just really want to be focused on other things.”
Elaborating further, Alcaraz said more discretion should be given to the rule. Particularly after long rallies have taken place, which require players to take slightly longer to recover.
“We could see there are different umpires. So it’s just about with one or two, probably, the same guys that have been a problem with a lot of matches,” he continued.
“There are other umpires who are flexible about it. I would say if they understand tennis, they know how to do it. The guys who are really strict are because they don’t understand tennis at all.”
Alcaraz will next play Arthur Rinderknech in Indian Wells.
