Tennis legend John McEnroe has called for a tennis rule to be “abolished immediately” as he argued there needs to be “development” in the sport.
McEnroe, a seven-time Grand Slam singles champion and former world No 1, is working at the 2026 US Open as a commentator and analyst for ESPN.
In an interview with journalists at Flushing Meadows, McEnroe asserted that the five-minute on-court warmup before matches should be scrapped.
“The on-court warm-up should be abolished immediately,” said the 67-year-old American.
“Players are already warmed up when they walk onto the court.”
McEnroe, who won 77 singles titles and 78 doubles titles, explained why he feels more innovation is required in tennis.
“The changes don’t have to be enormous, but there does need to be development,” McEnroe added.
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“It is difficult for people to sit in front of the television for hours. There weren’t even tiebreaks in the past. Until then, for example, the opening set of a match could end 28-26.”
McEnroe is not the only former tennis star who would like to see the on-court warmup abolished.
During this year’s Wimbledon Championships, former British No 1 Kyle Edmund told Tennis365 why he thinks removing the warmup would be good for tennis.
“Players are happy to hit for five minutes, because we see that on court, so why not have practice courts where they hit for five minutes and then they walk straight on? And then it’s like, ‘Right, we’re good to go.’ I think that’d improve the product,” the former world No 14 said.
“I remember someone telling me about stats, that the amount of people watching [tennis] on TV that turn over [during the warmup], and there’s a percentage that come back, and there’s a percentage that don’t come back because they’re lost watching something else.
“I just think it would be really good, I’d love to see that happen. If you think of the amount of matches we’ve had, and the five-minute warmup, that’s like hours and hours of meaningless [time]. So, I think that would be pretty coo
Carlos Alcaraz is someone who would likely be opposed to this proposed change, having been critical of the one-minute warmup rule in place at the 2021 edition of the ATP Next Gen Finals, which he won.
“The one minute of warm-up, you have no time to warm up,” the Spanish star said.
“I would say for the player, you can’t warm up everything, every shot, the volley, the serve, the backhand, the forehand, at all.
“I would say that you have to warm up four minutes to play forehands, backhands, volley, serve, smash, everything to start the match in the best way possible.
“There are some rules that I would keep and there are some other rules that I don’t really like.”
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