Tennis players now on the clock
Citi Open using clocks on serves; U.S. Open next
WASHINGTON — Reigning U.S. Open champion Sloane Stephens awaited a serve from Bethanie Mattek-Sands during a humid first-round match Tuesday in the Citi Open. This week, two new accessories are mounted on the walls behind both players: shot clocks.
Major League Baseball’s pace-of-play battle has also arrived in tennis.
For the first time, the main draw of the Citi Open features shot clocks as part of a larger experiment among officials from the USTA, ATP and WTA to implement in-game innovations this summer. The clocks will also be used at the U.S. Open during main-draw matches, which begin Aug. 27. Last year, the clocks were tested during qualifying matches in the U.S. Open.
The motivations for the shot clock are similar to those that drove MLB to implement various pace-of-play rules this season — and like MLB, tennis’ new rules might not drastically speed up matches. In fact, the small, square digital clocks could slow down matches even more.
The serve clock rule, originally implemented during the Next Gen Finals in Milan in 2017, will make a clock visible to enforce a previously existing but largely unenforced rule that allows players 25 seconds to serve. The clock begins when the chair umpire announces the score and turns off when the server lifts the racket to signify the serving motion. After even-numbered games, the clock will start when the balls are in place on the server’s side of the court. If the clock runs out before the player begins the serve (which does not include bouncing the tennis ball), the player will receive a warning for the first violation and will lose a serve on subsequent violations.
Why adopt the new rule now? Similar to the motivations of MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred, who applied a limitation on mound visits (six a team every nine innings) and new time limits between innings and pitching changes this season, tennis officials wanted a method for speeding up matches that would not hugely disorient players.
“We’d like the pace of play to speed up,” said Gayle Bradshaw, the ATP’s executive vice president of rules and competition. “The other thing is the enforcement. … But it’s the inconsistency from one court to another, from one chair to the other, that frustrates the players. So this is the way that kind of brings us some consistency, and it seems like it’s just a natural next step.”
The shot-clock discussion began about eight years ago when Bradshaw wrote a paper detailing how it could work, even when he himself was opposed to the idea. But after seeing the clock implemented “successfully” in Milan, Bradshaw is optimistic that his sport’s new time constraints will make the game faster and more consistent.
But also like in MLB, players’ opinions are divided. At the Citi Open, players favor the clock if they believe it fits their own pace.
“For me, I’m specifically one of the quickest players on tour,” said Alexander Zverev, the 2017 Citi Open champion who is ranked No. 3 in the world. “So, for me, it probably won’t be as big of a distraction as it might be for others. I like the idea. I like that they are trying it out.”
On the other hand, Kei Nishikori, who is ranked 20th, expressed trepidation.
“It might be tough for me because I usually take a lot of time between points,” Nishikori said. “Especially this summer, it’s going to be tough. If it’s in Europe, it might be OK, but it’s one of the hottest places here. And also it’s going to be hot at the U.S. Open.”
In June, MLB said the average nineinning game was about six minutes quicker this season than last — but in a three- to four-hour game with the potential for extra innings, six minutes is hardly a big enough change to attract fans who find baseball boring.
Similarly, tennis’ new shot clock is also hardly foolproof.
“Especially Saturday, when it was very warm here, we were in the third set of one of the matches, and the guy got up to the line and saw that it was 12 seconds left, and he backed off and took a couple more breaths, and went back up there at five seconds and hit his serve,” Bradshaw said. “So it can work both ways, too.”
While MLB has stats to analyze the success of its rules, it’s too soon to tell what effect new timing rules will have on tennis. One thing is clear: the pressure to improve pace-of-play is a trend sports officials think they must address.