Interesting point.
Roger has already complained in the past that Rafa was getting too much time between points and Rafa said that it was up to the empire to intervene.
The rule states that it can take up to 25 seconds between points and it’s quite clear that many players do not bother. Rafa and Novak are among the ones to take more time between points.
Countless people did measure how long it takes for Rafa and Nole to serve between points and everybody agrees that both average more than 30 seconds with peaks up to 40/45 seconds for important points.
Apparently the last mega marathon between the world no.1 and world no.2 at the 2012 Australian open final was so long also because of the lenghty time between points.
‘I do believe the officials could be a bit more tough on timing,’ he told reporters at Indian Wells. ‘I’m not complaining a lot, but I don’t know how you can go through a four-hour match with Rafa and he never gets a time violation. It’s natural that even I would go over time, but they never remind us. There are times when they could be a bit more firm. Because at the end of the day, I don’t know if fans are getting frustrated to watch five points that are going to take us five minutes.’
Talking about the possibility to install a shot clock.
‘I hope it does not go that far. All of us should be able to agree of something that is possible. But you don’t want to lose fans because of that.’
It seems there are 2 solutions to this. Either they issue a time violation (according to the rule) or they change the rule itself.
Otherwise why bother making rules???
