Finally, the stop (or serve) clock is coming.
There has been an ongoing controversy around for the last few years about the opportunity of introducing a serve clock in tennis. The serve clock has been experimented in the qualifications and some events such as the IPTL and the #nextgen final in Milan. Generally speaking, almost all players were happy with this concept.
The penalties
Therefore, from the US Open next edition, the slam will introduce a 25-second serve clock. The first violation will incur a warning, the second one the loss of a point and then the loss of a game.
The 7-minute rule
Also, all players will have a 7 minutes warm-up that includes: 1 minute from the time they walk till the time they reach the net; 5 minutes to warm-up; 1 minute before the first serve. Violators could be fined up to $20,000.
The original rule.
The original rule was that in slams players had 20 seconds in between serves (25 for the other events on tour). Unfortunately, there was no visible clock, and the rule was often abused.
With this introduction, everything will be faster, but it will also be interesting to understand what will happen during long 5-setters.
