Carlos Alcaraz has received support from fellow Grand Slam winner Kim Clijsters following his outburst over the “s***” ATP rules at the Qatar Open.
The seven-time Grand Slam winner was involved in a heated exchange with chair umpire Marija Cicak midway through the opening set of his quarter-final clash against Karen Khachanov after he received a time violation.
The world No 1 was a little slow to send down his serve as he was not ready when the 25 seconds had elapsed on the shot clock, and the official stuck to the rule and gave him the violation, but it did not go down well with the Spaniard as believes he should have received more leeway.
The match continued, but Alcaraz had another exchange with Cicak during the changeover before he turned to his bench and told them: “The ATP rules are always s***, it’s s***, s***.”
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The top seed went on to lose the first set, but bounced back to claim a 6-7 (3-7), 6-4, 6-3 win over Khachanov and during his post-match press conference, Alcaraz described the rule as “absurd” and stated he felt officials should be a bit more lenient.
It was one of the few times that the 23-year-old was visibly upset during and after a match, and former world No 1 Clijsters believes the frustration is warranted.
“I love that Carlos Alcaraz is actually saying that stuff because for him to do it, it must be really frustrating or something must be triggering,” the four-time Grand Slam winner said on the Love All with Kim Clijsters podcast.
“It comes from a place where he’s actually very annoyed by it. So, I enjoyed that he spoke up and that maybe behind the scenes, where he mentioned the ATP rules, maybe they’ll change a little bit about the shot clock and I agree.
“We saw something at the Australian Open with Novak Djokovic in the semi-finals. In the fifth set, where he got a time violation after a super-long rally.
“There’s time like that, where I feel as a referee or chair umpire, you just have to read the room little bit, because as a tennis fan, when I am watching this, you have to give these players their moment to recover, whether it’s one or two seconds more, it really is not going to make a big deal.”
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The post Former world No 1 praises Carlos Alcaraz for speaking up over ‘s***’ rule – ‘I love that’ appeared first on Tennis365.
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