Rafa and the 20 seconds rule

[urban]

One question. Is the 20 seconds rule, before starting a point on serve, still intact? A few years ago, it was 30 seconds between points. It was a rule to prevent players like Connors and Lendl to make endless movements with rackets and balls before starting really to serve. Now it seems to me, that little Rafa is playing this game. I have no problem, when a player slows down quick movers like Agassi or Steffi, who would hurry through the points. But Rafa looks extremely slow to me between points. No wonder, that he is playing 1 hour pro set, netto time maybe only 20 minutes.

 

[vive le beau jeu !]

25

One question. Is the 20 seconds rule, before starting a point on serve, still intact? A few years ago, it was 30 seconds between points. It was a rule to prevent players like Connors and Lendl to make endless movements with rackets and balls before starting really to serve. Now it seems to me, that little Rafa is playing this game. I have no problem, when a player slows down quick movers like Agassi or Steffi, who would hurry through the points. But Rafa looks extremely slow to me between points. No wonder, that he is playing 1 hour pro set, netto time maybe only 20 minutes.

it's 25 seconds now... but he's still above.
http://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/showthread.php?p=929113#post929113

 

[malakas]

and what are the penalty???
This thing really get on my nerves...

 

[diegaa]

i agree its getting annoying. But i dont think its part of his tactics, so its just annoying by itself and not because hes trying to get an advantage out of it.

 

[mislav]

I find Djokovic's endless ball bouncing before the serve to be more annoying. I haven't noticed that before, has he always been doing that?

 

[malakas]

Maybe,but still umpire should make him hurry!!
I think that Nadal is a good kid,but things like that make me dislike him a lot!!

 

[RadekStepanekTheKing]

i agree its getting annoying. But i dont think its part of his tactics, so its just annoying by itself and not because hes trying to get an advantage out of it.

How can you know?? Maybe it is his tactic..

 

[treo]

He was warned by the umpire when he was playing Hewitt. I think he uses it as a tactic. When he played Mathieu he was taking up to a minute between points when serving. People I play with only take 10-15 seconds. I played a guy recently and was annoyed by how long he was taking and started timing him but it still was only 30 seconds. Nadal's opponents should complain to the umpire about him stalling. Another tactic players like Nadal use to stall is to go for a new racquet in the middle of the game. Officials need to crack down on these delays that makes the game boring.

 

[Guevin]

I find Djokovic's endless ball bouncing before the serve to be more annoying.

Agreed. I counted 15 bounces once, he was mostly in the 11-13 bounce range, I'd lose my mind waiting for his serve.

 

[vive le beau jeu !]

Agreed. I counted 15 bounces once, he was mostly in the 11-13 bounce range, I'd lose my mind waiting for his serve.

it's officially limited to 37 bounces and a half... he's still within the rules

 

[mislav]

Agreed. I counted 15 bounces once, he was mostly in the 11-13 bounce range, I'd lose my mind waiting for his serve.

I haven't actually counted his bounces myself although I did find them extremely annoying. But commentators on Eurosport did, and I remember they've counted a series of 13, 15 and 19 bounces! That's nineteen bounces!!!

 

[LowProfile]

Sharapova takes about 40 seconds before each serve. Pierce also takes a damn long time. They're both a good deal worse than Nadal is (he occassionally goes around a minute, but on average he takes about 20 seconds).

 

[pero]

I find Djokovic's endless ball bouncing before the serve to be more annoying. I haven't noticed that before, has he always been doing that?

not on zagreb indoors, but he bounces ball approx. 20 times, before used to about 10

 

[Aykhan Mammadov]

I suggest Nadal to play without socks also.

 

[David L]

Agreed. I counted 15 bounces once, he was mostly in the 11-13 bounce range, I'd lose my mind waiting for his serve.

I counted 19 once. It was funny to see Nadal on the receiving end. Taking long because of your rituals is different to waiting a long time for someone else to complete theirs. At least he got to see what it feels like.

 

[drakulie]

I don't think it's necessariy a tactic he uses-I think he just really feels annoyed with his shorts err pants going up his crack, and it takes a long time to get them out.

 

[mislav]

Apparently, this guy waited for Djokovic to serve:

 

[Guevin]

^ LOL, nice find.

 

[jaggy]

Remember a guy in the 80's American called Mark Dickson I think. He bounced it about 50 times each serve, it was painful.

 

[katarddx]

One of the things why tennis is not popular thing to watch and people couldn't care less about it...

 

[diegaa]

How can you know?? Maybe it is his tactic..

No, i dont. Thats why i started the phrase with an "I think".

 

[MagicMT]

One of the things why tennis is not popular thing to watch and people couldn't care less about it...

i don't know about that, there is definitely much more boring things happening in other sports which are much more popular. take baseball for example, they spit, kick the dirt, do practice swings, fidget, etc. there is not much action in that. golf and nascar are even more boring.