The US Open have announced that they will make use of a shot clock in the main fields this coming late summer. Now the organizers were surprised with the idea of using the tool even next year.
“It will probably happen,” said All England Lawn and Tennis Club President Richard Lewis in an interview with The Times. “We are not making this change because we think it is necessary.”
The Shot Clock was used for the first time at the ATP NextGen Finals last autumn. The feedback was consistently positive, which now also makes some other tournament organizers flirt with this technology.
“However, this is not a change of rules, but only a mechanism that improves compliance with the existing rules – or not,” Lewis said. Currently, at ITF tournaments, which include the four Grand Slams, there is a policy to keep points within 25 seconds of each other.
However, it is at the discretion of the respective chair referee to sanction this rule. Players will be warned first, and a second intervention will result in a first serve. If the rules are broken again, players must reckon with a loss of points.
The aim of the time limit between points is to shorten tennis matches in order to make them more attractive and easier to plan for TV stations. A circumstance that Lewis doubts.
“I told my colleagues in the other Grand Slams that the shot clock will – to put it bluntly – slow down tennis,” Lewis said. “Players will take their 25 seconds to the limit, although there are some who are not doing so at the moment. In a 128 field, I think we’ll see longer matches on average in five years.”