Tennis is a game that has lots of traditions with a number of years, with Wimbledon the most traditional tournament of all.
Andre Agassi hated having to wear white on court at Wimbledon but to this day, it’s something that remains in place.
The rules of tennis have been pretty longstanding with tweaks made over the years to try and bring the game into the modern era.
Most recently, it was decided that at Grand Slams if the scores went to six games each in the deciding set, a 10-point tie-breaker would take place instead of the long-standing tradition of playing until someone wins by two clear games.
Elsewhere changes have been made when it comes to medical breaks during matches and other things have altered to try and aid the players on court.
At Shanghai, the ATP were given a warning over one rule that desperately needs changing and there is now another rule that could perhaps be tweaked on the back of Taylor Fritz snapping at a fan on social media over the weekend.
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The ATP and WTA should now look at changing one rule that has been in place for over 30 years
Alexander Zverev caused a stir recently, suggesting tournament directors did everything possible to cater for Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner at tournaments.
He bemoaned how slow everything was in terms of the courts and balls and claimed there needed to be more variety in terms of the conditions.
When it comes to the courts, it’s difficult to agree with Zverev who has simply wound up Alcaraz and Sinner to beat him even more than they already do.
When it comes to the balls, however, perhaps there is an argument for that rule to be changed on the WTA and ATP Tours in the near future.
In the current format, the balls are changed every nine games, except for at the start of the match when they’re changed after seven games with those same balls also used in the warm-up.
After 30 years though it would appear that the situation with the balls hasn’t really evolved with the state of the game in the modern era.
Yannik Noah was the last man to win a Grand Slam with a wooden racket and nowadays the frames and the strings are ridiculously advanced.
Not only that but the players now hit the ball harder than ever and that naturally makes the balls unplayable in games seven, eight and nine.
With that in mind, it would make perfect sense to have more frequent changes and see if that has any impact on things on both tours.
Tennis must continue to evolve
Ask many of the players and they will suggest that the ATP and WTA Tours are becoming harder with each passing year when it comes to the number of tournaments players.
Although the financial stakes are as high as they’ve ever been, that doesn’t mean that elite athletes should be allowed to keep putting their bodies through the mill for 52 weeks of the year.
Clearly, players want more variation at tournaments and as a result, perhaps making a change to the time played with a new ball can benefit the players.
The longer the balls stay in their condition the better and that in theory should make the matches between the top players more entertaining.
It feels unlikely that this will be changed any time soon but the number of games played with new balls does feel like it now needs a tweak.
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