GIVE US A BREAK AND LIMIT THESE HOLD-UPS
TENNIS talk should be about the technical brilliance of the players, their breathtaking athleticism and about who manages to hold their nerve at crucial moments. But too often, as on Saturday evening, much debate involves speculation about visits to the court by medical staff or the reviving effects of spurious toilet breaks. The course of Andy Murray’s victory over Andreas Seppi seemed to be dictated by the hiatuses caused by summoning the trainer. Only the two players — neither of whom are known for excessive on-court medical calls — really know how urgent their need was. But it has highlighted the growing number of pauses seen in professional matches. Murray later spoke of the potential double positive from calling on the physio: you can disrupt an opponent’s rhythm while also preparing a potential excuse for defeat. In the previous match Petra Kvitova had held up her match for seven minutes to visit the loo. And, in a seeming epidemic of weak bladders, Rafael Nadal went off after his first set against Dustin Brown. Yet someone like the former British top 10 player Jo Durie recalls that in 13 years she never once needed to interrupt a match to answer a call of nature. What to do about these twin maladies? In 2009 the WTA Tour introduced a sensible rule rationing the number of on-court physio visits a player could have in a season. If you went beyond a certain number a call-out fee of $300 would be charged. The number of physio requests subsequently stabilised and the regulation was phased out three years ago. It is time that both the men’s and women’s tours revisited that idea. And while they are it they could look at cutting these infernal toilet breaks, which cost broadcasters viewers every time they happen. How about granting players an allowance of, say, three per year, and then making the more incontinent pay a set amount to tour charities every time they need to go after that. It would surely change the culture. The alphabet soup of tennis governing bodies really need to all get round the table and adopt a unified approach to tackling the amount of dead time in matches — especially in an age when attention spans among action-hungry fans are growing ever shorter.