Tennis Q & A

[ICEMAN_9588]

You guys all seem to be combining the two proposals into one deal. Neither the ATP statement or myself said lets were a problem as far as time. The time rule is subjective, and there will always be problems enforcing that rule. Only some sort of serve clock buzzer that's super visible like the NBA will fix the problem.

I like the no let rule for 2 other reasons:

1. Keeps the rules (a little more) consistent.
If you hit a shot that bounces twice on the other side... who cares if the ball hit the net or not.
Why is it only ok to hit a let winner AFTER the serve? There is no reason except "that's the way it's always been."
If play was halted every time the ball touched the net it would be weird and stupid. And it's still kind of that way now.

Ok but then the best thing to do would be to eliminate all the "lets" in the game. Even the ones during the rally.

Play is not halted every time the ball touches the net, but only when it touches the net on serve. How many times is lost during an entire match, seriously?
Why should be all this stupid and weird?

[emate007]

Ok but then the best thing to do would be to eliminate all the "lets" in the game. Even the ones during the rally.

How would you do this? Get rid of the net?

I don't think you quite got the point of my post, I was saying it would be weird if the point restarted every time there was a let during a rally.

[Rob ITST]

How would you do this? Get rid of the net?

Now THAT would speed things up a lot.

[djarvik]

...we then should switch to Hockey Sticks. Kinda intriguing......

[ICEMAN_9588]

Ok but then the best thing to do would be to eliminate all the "lets" in the game. Even the ones during the rally.

How would you do this? Get rid of the net?

I don't think you quite got the point of my post, I was saying it would be weird if the point restarted every time there was a let during a rally.

In fact, I didnt get the point, sorry

Anyway for me it's good how things go on right now.
This is not a real solution to shorten "television times". I mean, Australian Open final: almost 6 hours. How much time could they have saved up with "lets"? Come on...

Tie break was a great change that really helped games to be not so long and exhausting, for example.
But tennis is a strong traditional game, it won't need such solutions like avoiding lets on service.
Supposing that tennis actually needs to be shortened in television. This is also a sport with no preconcerted time-game, a match can last 1 or 4 hours, like volleyball.

And that's one of its strenght points, in my opinion.

[Corbon]

One idea about the 25 sec rule: The referee could get some sort of shot clock and he would activate it after announcing the new score (30-15 *push*) or when both the server and returner are at the baseline at the start of a new game. Since the loss of a first serve would only work for the server but there are also returners deliberately stalling the game, a first violation should be a warning and then each subsequent violation a loss of point.

[emate007]

This is not a real solution to shorten "television times". I mean, Australian Open final: almost 6 hours. How much time could they have saved up with "lets"? Come on...

emate007 wrote:Neither the ATP statement or myself said lets were a problem as far as time. The time rule is subjective, and there will always be problems enforcing that rule. Only some sort of serve clock buzzer that's super visible like the NBA will fix the problem.

I like the no let rule for 2 other reasons

[emate007]

How would you do this? Get rid of the net?

Now THAT would speed things up a lot.

[ICEMAN_9588]

This is not a real solution to shorten "television times". I mean, Australian Open final: almost 6 hours. How much time could they have saved up with "lets"? Come on...

emate007 wrote:Neither the ATP statement or myself said lets were a problem as far as time. The time rule is subjective, and there will always be problems enforcing that rule. Only some sort of serve clock buzzer that's super visible like the NBA will fix the problem.

I like the no let rule for 2 other reasons

Yes, I completely misunderstood your post, I'm sorry againt.