Tennis moving forward with Grand Slam changes
Serena Williams with coach Patrick Mouratoglou during previews for the US Open in August at USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York City. (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)
The changes in tennis keep coming. And now we see Wimbledon leading the way as the All England Lawn Tennis Club announced the introduction of a final set tiebreak for all championship events starting in 2019.
But don’t expect a tie-break at Wimbledon to be the only change on the horizon in tennis. Already we’ve seen the U. S. Open adopt a serve clock for championship play and the Australian Open has followed form, adding a 25-second serve clock to the January 2019 event. Of course, the coaching discussion is just getting started. The biggest change announced thus far for 2019, though, came today when Wimbledon let loose the news it would enlist a tiebreak when the final set — the third set for women and fifth set for men — hits 12-12.
“Informed by a thorough review of match data from the past 20 championships, and upon consultation with players and officials, the tie-break will be played when the score reaches 12-12 in the final set,” the club writes.
“In reaching this decision,” says Philip Brook, AELTC chairman, in the same statement, “the AELTC Committee sought the feedback of both players and officials, analyzed two decades of match data and considered other factors including scheduling complexities and spectator experiences.”
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Brook says the committee felt they needed a “reasonable” point during the deciding set to end a match that hadn’t reached a natural conclusion. “While we know the instances of matches extending deep into the final set are rare, we feel that a tiebreak at 12-12 strikes an equitable balance between allowing players ample opportunity to complete the match to advantage, while also providing certainty that the match will reach a conclusion in an acceptable timeframe,” he says.
. @Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/Re8QEKNjj2
— John Isner (@JohnIsner) October 19,2018
The longest match in Wimbledon history involved American John Isner defeating Nicolas Mahut 70-68 in the fifth set of a match in 2010 that spanned three days. What may have really pushed Wimbledon, though, was the 2018 semifinal between Isner and Kevin Anderson. The longest semifinal on record took 6 hours, 35 minutes and saw Anderson prevail 26-24 in the fifth. Anderson then lost to Novak Djokovic less than 48 hours later in the final.
On-Court Coaching
With match length the drama in London, on-court coaching took the top discussion point at the 2018 U. S. Open during Naomi Osaka’s championship victory over Serena Williams.
During the match, Williams was penalized a code violation for receiving coaching from Patrick Mouratoglou. While the WTA allows on-court coaching in specific circumstances, there is no coaching from the stands. And no Grand Slam event allows coaching during matches. Following the Osaka victory, Mouratoglou admitted to coaching Williams, but claimed that “everybody does it.”
The status of coaching in tennis needs reforming. Read my opinion below pic.twitter.com/qLKIINwqbx
— Patrick Mouratoglou (@pmouratoglou) October 18,2018
The well-known coach posted a message on his social media recently endorsing coaching, saying “It’s time to stop the hypocrisy surrounding coaching.”
In his open letter, he claims it is a basic truth that the majority of tennis coaches are actually coaching on court, despite the rules. “Look at how many times players look toward their boxes during a match,” he writes. “Some do it after every single point. Of course, coaches are usually discreet in the way they give messages to their players — they do it with signs or with loaded signals — but most of them also communicate verbally.”
He says it is time to “authorize and structure” the coaching to sustain the sport’s development.
I cover stadiums, sneakers and tennis. I have written regularly about design, gear, architecture and sport for TIME, Sports Illustrated, Popular Mechanics, Wired and more, from sit-down exclusives to chat sneakers with Kobe Bryant to multiple fashion discussions with Roger F…
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