Past and present tennis players will all have their opinions on what rules the sport should stick with, ditch, or adopt.
It seems that some want best of five set tennis scrapped at Grand Slams, and others have called for the game to do away with lets on serves.
Others have proposed that players have just one serve rather than two, while some want on-court coaching to be shelved or, conversely, enhanced.
For some people, tennis matches go on for too long, with many unable to devote their time and attention to a contest that lasts multiple hours.
To some outsiders looking in, the amount of time between points and the number of changeovers they make is puzzling. But when the sport is getting ultra physical, that 90-second break is, arguably, vital to preserving their energy levels.
More Tennis News
Wimbledon withdrawals: 13 stars out as former world No 4 joins growing list
Want more from Tennis365? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list for tennis coverage you can trust.
However, former British No 1 Greg Rusedski has posited that when a game is finished and a player changes ends, they shouldn’t have a break.
His argument was that that may bring back serve and volley tennis, which has virtually become extinct with the acceleration of string technology, balls getting larger, and courts slowing down since the turn of the Millennium.
If a player is running on empty, they may need to be more tactical and that could lead to more variety, according to Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard’s coach.
When asked what rule he would change in tennis, he said, with a hint of a grin, on The Beyond Tennis Podcast in February, “No sitting down in between, continuous play.
“If you had continuous play, then people would have to serve and volley and they’d have to be more tactically astute.”
If this was enacted, it really would be survival of the fittest, turning an already gruelling sport into an even more gladiatorial and brutal challenge.
Perhaps the most physical Grand Slam final ever played was Novak Djokovic‘s five-set win over Rafael Nadal at the Australian Open in 2012.
The great rivals played for nearly six hours and could barely stand for the trophy ceremony. The sport is arguably even more physical now, something that is not helped by the lengthy tour calendar.
It may also be a logistical nightmare when it comes to allowing the crowd to come and go during the contest. Either way, it’s an interesting topic to debate.
READ MORE: Radical Grand Slam changes suggested as Carlos Alcaraz among 13 Wimbledon withdrawals
The post Former British No 1 proposes gruelling tennis rule change that would transform the sport appeared first on Tennis365.
Leave a Reply