'Give us some more time': Carlos Alcaraz urges authorities to rethink serve clock timer rule

Carlos Alcaraz has asked the tennis officials to be more cautious about penalising players for time violations. According to the rules, which were recently updated, players now have 25 seconds to get ready to serve; otherwise, they will be penalised.

Alcaraz, who is currently taking part in the Queen’s Club Championship, had an awkward moment where he was penalised for a time violation in the second-round encounter against Jaume Munar. Talking after the match, where Alcaraz came out on top with a score of 6-4, 6-7, 7-5, the 22-year-old asked the authorities to be more cautious about penalising players. Alcaraz also urged the authorities to make a few adjustments to the rule.

“‘I think so [that the rules needs to be changed],’ said Alcaraz. “They also have to have to be a little tactful with that. We’ve been playing for three hours, we finished a long point at the net, they should have a little bit of hand and give us some more time. There are a lot of situations where everything is slow and time is running out, and we can’t prepare for the next point. When you can’t prepare in the right way for the next point, you can’t play it in the right way, so I think it’s not the best for the show (match). It’s not nice and it’s not nice for us either. I personally try to go as fast as possible. I don’t remember the last time I got a time warning and in the first round I didn’t have any problems. Today (Thursday) I had several problems with it. I don’t understand it. I also think it’s a problem of the chair umpire, who maybe wanted to have the limelight, but it’s a rule that should be changed.” Alcaraz will now face France’s Arthur Rinderknech in the quarterfinals of the competition on Friday. Rinderknech secured his spot in the last eight after beating America’s Reilly Opelka in straight sets with a score of 7-5, 7-6.