The British website iNews states that in the coming days the Players’ Council and the ATP management can ‘hit the hammer’ regarding the application of new playing rules during the Madrid Masters, which will be held between April 24th and May 5th.
Testing of the new rules would be carried out in the men’s doubles bracket and they are: a significant change regarding the stops between odd-numbered games, which is currently 90 seconds.
The proposal to be applied is that athletes will not be allowed this rest time during the first set and athletes will not be allowed to sit on the bench during this part of the game. The plan would be that after the matches, the double players would get more rest time for their next game.
Another significant rule for the doubles circuit would be the ‘registration reservation’ for the brackets. Currently, all ranked tennis players can register for the doubles bracket and access to the competition is based on the combined classification of the partnership’s rankings. The new proposal, in turn, dedicates 13 spaces in the Madrid bracket to tennis players who primarily play singles, considering this ranking for entry into doubles, and another 16 spaces for double tennis players.
A third test must be carried out in doubles in Madrid is the time interval for service. The idea is to apply the rule already tested in the ATP Finals Next Gen, which determines that in points with exchanges of less than three balls there is a maximum time of 15 seconds to make the next serve and maintain the current 25 seconds in case of more than three exchanges .
According to what iNews found, doubles players, especially from the WTA, are afraid of the proposed changes, which will be certified by the ATP and must also undergo tests by the WTA, starting with the doubles registration rule.
The report points out that the double players fear being ‘passed behind’ by the circuit’s commandos.
Also according to iNews, the ATP’s move towards these changes took place after receiving an official letter from the sports broadcasting command, ESPN, a Disney group company that is known for its pioneering spirit in sports broadcasting. ESPN dominates the tennis broadcast market in Brazil and Latin America and is also ATP Media’s main partner in the United States.
