U.S. Open qualifying matches this week has seen the testing of a "serve clock and other innovations such as in-match coaching," according to Howard Fendrich of the AP. USTA Chief Exec of Professional Tennis Stacey Allaster said that through the first round of qualifying, there were "only nine serve-clock violations." In that same span, there were "two violations of the minute time limit given to players to being a match after their 5-minute warmup period" and zero violations of the limit "on time for an outfit change." Fendrich notes the change in coaching has proven to be "popular." Chair umpires observed 73% of players "receiving the help" on the opening day of qualifying, with that number jumping to 81% the next day. Allaster: "If we're going to think long-term and about younger fans, we have to be open to new ideas. Anything we can do to make our sport more accessible for fans, and more entertaining, is where we all need to go" (AP, 8/25). TENNIS.com's Steve Tignor writes the serve clock on Wednesday worked "smoothly, judging from a couple of hours spent walking the grounds and dropping in on matches." The "vast majority of the time, the players got their serves off with more than 10 seconds left on the clock." The longer a game lasted, the "more time the players tended to take between points, but they almost never flirted with double zero on the clock." Tignor: "The best aspect of the clock was also the most surprising: It kept me from getting annoyed by players who were deliberate in their preparations" (TENNIS.com, 8/24).
TIME TO TAKE IT EASY: Tennis HOFer John McEnroe said that the ATP Tour "must consider reviewing its schedule in a bid to cut down on injuries." Milos Raonic earlier this week became the fourth top-12 player to miss the U.S. Open due to injury, joining Stan Wawrinka, Novak Djokovic and Kei Nishikori. McEnroe said that players had become more "prone to injuries as the game evolved over the years." He added that officials should "take another look at the schedule to see if they can lighten the load" (REUTERS, 8/25).
