"This new rule is absurd and harmful for the players. When I finish the point at the net, I don't even have time to go and get the ball to serve. I'm not talking about going to get the towels, but the fact that we don't even have time to get the ball after a rally."
It has been one of the most debated topics in recent weeks. A topic that has also made Carlos Alcaraz impatient, as he himself explained in a recent press conference. Is making Tennis faster by implementing the countdown for the service a viable way to further improve its fluidity? After the defeat against Jack Draper at the Queen's Club Championships, the young Spaniard had expressed his total disappointment.
Toni Nadal, in an interview with El Pis, supported his young countryman, stressing that this new rule is - in his opinion - senseless.
"The umpires' work is being reduced to that of simple point counters. A new rule that provides only 25 seconds of margin between the end of the point and the beginning of the next one: why was it created? Probably to capture the attention of the new generations, whose attention span is increasingly lower. It doesn't make much sense for players to have the same amount of time after an ace and after a long and intense rally," he said.
A decision that reduces the umpires' impact on the match, whose contribution to the match is reduced to the maximum, almost turning them into robots.
"The umpires have the mission and responsibility to direct the direction that their sport must take in order not to lose its essence, to adapt to the new times and to maintain, if not increase, its spectacular nature. And the popularity of our sport often depends on the correctness of their decisions. The work of the umpires is practically reduced to that of simple point counters. What should be sought is to increase the percentage of time in which the ball is in play and to have long rallies in which the players must use different tricks and skills to win them. These are the type of fights that also attract a long applause from the public," said Rafael Nadal's uncle.
