Andy clocks umpires on time rule row after punching in a victory
ANDYMURRAYhas called for greater clarity on the rules governing timing between points after being called for t wo time violations during his second round French Open victory against Joao Sousa of Portugal.
While the Scot ground out a 6-2, 4-6, 6-4, 6-1 win against the world No.44 from Portugal, there was a minor difference of opinion with umpire Pascal Mari.
The dispute arose when the world No.3 felt he was unfairly penalised when, in fact, he was waiting for the big-screen replay of the previous point to finish.
Such issues became a detail by the end, but the Murray said all the players were looking for was a bit of consistency in enforcing the time rule.
Murray said he had never requested a particular umpire shouldn’t officiate at his matches – such as Rafa Nadal and Carlos Bernardes at this year’s French Open.
And he stopped short of calling for a shot clock, such as the one which operates in basketball and the International Premier Tennis League.
“I like the time violation rule,” said Murray. “It’s there for a reason. Sometimes I play too slow and that’s unintentional.
“But obviously as a player you have no idea how long you’re taking in between the points and the reality is when you’re out there playing on a court like that, things do kind of happen sometimes.
“You don’t get the ball in time or the towel in time. Or the second one that I got I genuinely I was up at the line I think in good time, but they were showing the highlight from the point before, so I didn’t serve.
“If you do it based on a shot clock, then you take the fans out of the match a little bit,” he added. “Sometimes, like on a big point or a set point, they tend to clap and make some noise.
“I made no issue about it on the court during the match. But it’s one of the few rules in our sport which there is a bit of a grey area there. It’s better when rules are black and white.”
Murray now goes on to face Nick Kyrgios of Australia the third round, a match which will take place tomorrow.
THE two other big guns in his half of the draw, Nadal and Novak Djokovic, remain on course too, even if the Serbian World No.1 suffered an injury scare during his 6-1, 6-4, 6-4 win over Gilles Muller of Luxembourg on a slippery Court Suzanne Lenglen.
“It’s nothing major,” said Djokovic, who faces another young Aussie gun, Thanasi Kokkinakis in the next round.
“So it’s not a concern for the next match, which is the most important thing. It wasn’t pleasant with the conditions that were changing today.
“The heavier conditions made the court a little bit more wet and it was pretty slippery.”
Nadal’s pusuit of his tenth French Open title is gathering pace.
The Mallorcan was scarcely troubled in the course of his 6-4, 6-3, 6-1 triumph against countryman Nicolas Almagro, and now faces Andrey Kuznetsov of Russia. He said: “Today the match I played was quite good I did what I wanted to do.
“I was running for all the difficult points. My backhand was good.
“I didn’t make many errors on the right shots, my forehand, and I played well.”