I think that this is a thread of opinions, so I will put mine here.
I think there is a good case for increasing time between sets. 10mins seems reasonable to cover all of it, toilet included. MTOs extra.
So do I. One with a true stomach issue for varieties of reasons out of the player's control should get the time on the stinky throne. We don't want to see a "****ty tennis", do we? However, players get their time for varieties of injuries' treatments as they can call the docs over. I wonder if that is, or can be, the 10 minutes.
So true. I recently re-watched the 1980 and 1981 Wimbledon finals between Mac and Borg. Both long five-setters. Neither left the court at all to go for any reason.
In those days, nobody left the court to go to the toilet. It just never happened. Some of that was because the importance of hydrating wasn't especially stressed. But it's totally bogus for players like Raonic and ********** to leave the court for 10 minutes to change their clothes. This should never be allowed unless there's extraordinary humid or hot weather, like the Fed-Millman sweatfest at the USO a couple years ago.
Real men like Rafa change their clothes during changeovers and don't take 10 freakin' minutes to do it!
Interesting point. I don't have all the stats from that era but find it hard to believe players did not go to toilets. 3-4 hrs on the court is a helluva time if one's got a sh*t up his/her arse. Now, I don't think hydrating was not stressed then but I believe the choices of drinks/foods, I mean the overall nutrition, were slightly different to the ones of today. The current athletes are often obsessed all sorts of elemets to their diet in order to get that competitive edge and what is available to them today may not have been then. Traveled, jetlagged and overloaded on carbs, protein or vitamins (especially C) may put one in a compromising situation. The current levels of toxicity in our foods/drinks does not make it any better for those athletes too. How many natural choices do you have today vs 70s-80s?
The bottom line here is whether players are to get their bathroom breaks and/or whether they are abusing them. More on, has Tsitsi took advantage of the situation and attempted to throw his opponent off or was it just an act of unsportsmanlike behavior. My humble view is that tennis players ought to be given a degree of liniency when it comes to an honest toilet time request but no mercy when overly talking during their match on the court. So, I think that Krajinovic has a point but he should've taken it up with the officials more than the internet. Seems as if he wasn't heard on the professional level which is why he may have taken his grievances to the social media.