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Five ways to make elite tennis more watchable

Rafa Nadal could win his tenth French Open. (AAP Image/Mark Dadswell)
Expert
2nd February, 2015
58

In almost perfect weather, a record 703,899 spectators flocked to see the Australian Open at Melbourne Park, smashing the previous record of 686,006, which was set in 2012.

Fifteen Slam champions were on duty – Novak Dkokovic, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Stan Wawrinka, Andy Murray, Lleyton Hewitt, Serena and Venus Williams, Maria Sharapova, Petra Kvitova, Ana Ivanovic, Sam Stosur, Victoria Azarenka, Francesca Schiavone and Svetlana Kuznetsova.

There were many brilliant points, sets, and matches over the packed fortnight, but there are five ways to make elite tennis more watchable.

Strictly police the 20-seconds rule between points, limit ball selection, limit ball bouncing between serves, ban towels at both ends of the court, and allow coaches to be on the sideline, following the Davis Cup tradition.

The 20-seconds between points is the most abused rule, with Nadal the serial offender.

By the time Nadal gets through his histrionics of towelling himself, multiple ball selection, brushing his non-existent hair off his forehead, which is kept firmly in place by his headband, to touching his left ear, then his right ear, nose, and readjusting his shorts in relation to his backside, the 20 seconds are long shot.

But there’s still bouncing the ball off the racquet, then by hand, before staring down his opponent, then at last serving. That’s 30-plus seconds worth of crap, purely designed to keep his opponent waiting, while he’s leaning forward to return serve,

Djokovic used to be bad, with a record 35 bounces prior to his first serve, and up to 24 bounces for the second. Now he’s around a nearly acceptable half a dozen bounces.

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Hewitt is by far the best with just two bounces before either serve. The suggested bouncing limit is four, after a limit of a three-ball selection.

That leaves the banning of towels. and coaches on the sideline.

The towelling has become such a farce, players are wasting time wiping their faces in the opening game of a match, even the first point. Nadal is the only player who takes two towels to the end where he’s serving or receiving, all part of his slow down play to upset an opponent.

So ban towels,and force players to have smaller towels tucked into the back of their shorts. That would be a ‘pain in the butt’, but it would dramatically stop the bulldust of constantly calling on the ball-boys armed with a towel, which further leads to abusing the 20-second rule.

So how does the central umpire control the 20-seconds between points, the limit on ball selection, three is ample, and the maximum four bounces before serving?

Easily.

For any flouting of the requirements, the first is a warning, the second is the loss of a point, the third the loss of a game, the fourth a set, and if the player is so stupid to continue being a richard cranium, a fifth penalty would be the loss of a match.

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There’s no doubt every player would conform very quickly, including Nadal. His histrionics would be history. And to further enhance speeding up the game, having the coach on the sideline would be an additional pair of eyes to conformity.

Besides, why should a player pay somewhere between $100,000 and $300,000 a year for a coach, and have him gagged in the stand.

This is 2015, it’s time for the ITF to play catch-ups.

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