After the Stefanos Tsitsipas controversies in 2021, ATP Tour to see timed bathroom breaks in 2022
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Andy Murray and Stefanos Tsitsipas
The 2021 season on the ATP Tour saw a lot of controversy surrounding the bathroom breaks taken by the players during the match. Apart from the play being stopped for a while, it also impacted the momentum of the opponent and it was noted on quite a few occasions that the break turned to be a turning point in the match.
World No. 1 Novak Djokovic was involved in a similar controversy on two occasions at the 2021 French Open. First, during his match against Italian youngster Lorenzo Musetti who was leading Novak 2 sets to love going into the 3rd set when Novak took the break and with a change in clothes, he fought back to eventually win when Musetti retired in the 5th set.
He repeated the same during the finals of the French Open when he was again 0-2 down going in the 3rd set and then went on to win the Slam against Stefanos Tsitsipas. Tsitsipas seemed to have picked up the thing and continued in the season which led to some strong comments from his opponents including Andy Murray and Alexander Zverev.
Every player will be allowed a maximum of three minutes from the moment they reach the bathroom and will be given additional two minutes to change their clothes, in total every player should be back in 5 minutes on the court and in case they fail to reach in time, violations will be sanctioned. The bathroom break is also set to be allowed only at the end of the set
Date for the new rules of the bathroom break yet not announced by ATP Tour
Medical timeouts will also see a change in rules and will now be allowed only during the changeover or at the end of the set so that the particular game is not halted. If the player finds himself unable to continue till the end of the set or the changeover, they would be forced to give up the necessary points till the end of the set/changeover.
While the new rules are yet to get any reaction from the players, the official date from when the rules will be implemented is not yet announced by the ATP Tour.
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Sarthak Shitole
(3462 Articles Published)