Tennis Australia Prepared for Possible Trouble From ATP Players

Written by: Staff on 11th January 2013

Tennis Australia Prepared for Possible Trouble From ATP Players |

Australian Open tournament referee Wayne McKewen called for calm amid growing player angst at the newly instigated ATP World Tour time rulings and ordered his chair umpires to employ common sense and good judgment.

McEewen pointed out that the rule for Grand Slam events has always been a maximum of 20 seconds between points, rather than the 25 that has been rigidly enforced in this year’s ATP tournaments. He intends to address the chair umpires before the main draw matches begin on Monday and said his message will be “keep it fair, keep it consistent.”

However there is a determination to stricter on the time issue than ever before and officials will be told to first give a warning and then begin imposing penalties points if slow play continues.

McKewen said: “We don’t want players out there being penalized after playing a fantastic point, but then again we don’t want players deliberately taking too long and that’s what we really look at. We focus on that and tell them to use good common sense, good judgment.

“If the crowd are still going nuts after a fantastic point then obviously there can be a little bit of leeway. But what we don’t want to see is players repeatedly stalling the match by taking too long over their serves.”

The 2012 Australian Open fina, in which Novak Djokovic beat Rafael Nadal after 5 hours, 53 minutes, was the longest final in the history of Grand Slam tennis. The two players are known to be serial offenders in breaking the time rules but McKewen added: “Last year’s final was a classic match, the points were lasting incredibly long. In a case like that, you don’t want to be killing it for everyone.”

©DailY Tennis News Wire

Topics: Australian Open, Australian Tennis, Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Sydney tennis was ATP tennis news, Wayne McKewen