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Stotty -
It's all in the implementation. Witness the 20 sec serve clock. Starts at the chair's discretion, with a pause that sometimes takes longer than the entire 20 sec if one of the celebrity violators is serving.
What happens when it takes 5 minutes to get to the restroom?
Can players still take bathroom and mysterious medical breaks just before their opponent serves for the match/ tiebreak? (The old Rafa trick. He did that multiple times vs Fed, including once taking a bathroom break before Fed literally served match point at Indian Wells. }.
There's already a 3 minute MTO limit with the giant loophole that it doesn't include "diagnosis". As one wag put int when Delpo spent ~16 minutes leaning on the net post starting straight at the chair umpire while he waited for Rafa to be 'diagnosed" before Delpo served in a Wimbledon tiebreak; "They've taken enough time to fly in a portable CAT scan machine - for stubbing his heal. On grass.". Worked.
Then there's the "multiple injuries loophole". Serena pulled that one before Clijsters served for the match at the old Taube Stanford BoW event. Had a foot injury, then they started looking at the other foot. Worked again. After sitting for 13 minutes Kim couldn't get a serve in.
Sorry. Subject makes me grumpy.
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Well, 3 minute toilet breaks will be limited to one a match and only at the end of a set. So that's progress. Quite what will happen when 3 minutes becomes 5 minutes we will have to see. A friend of mine said the ATP should treat players like parenting a child: Only issue threats you can actually carry out because otherwise you'll end up with a rule-breaking spoiled brat. He's probably right.StottyComment
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Good point. Alas, I'm afraid that ship has long-ago sailed <g>. Quite a few 'rule-breaking spoiled brats" atop the tour.Originally posted by stotty View PostComment
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