The title of Section 21 in the ITF Rules of Tennis is “When to Serve & Receive.” The name is a little deceptive because the primary focus of this rule is actually on pace of play rather than order of service and order of receiving which was previously covered in other sections.
The server shall not serve until the receiver is ready. However, the receiver shall play to the reasonable pace of the server and shall be ready to receive within a reasonable time of the server being ready.
USTA Friend at Court, ITF Rules of Tennis, Section 21
At the professional level, Rafael Nadal is the patron saint of slow play. Roger Federer has long been critical of Nadal’s pace of play, albiet it in the most gentlemanly way possible.
The time allowed between points is inexorably linked to the pace of play. I previously wrote about my confusion with an 2020 rules “update” to the amount of time allowed between points in “Friend at Court 2020, It’s About Time.” In the preface to the 2020 Friend at Court, the USTA highlighted a change of the time allowed between points from 20 to 25 seconds.
The time allowed between points has historically been somewhat dynamic. The variation also sometimes varied from event to event. For example, at the tour level in the early 90’s, the players were allowed 20 seconds between points at the Grand Slams and 25 seconds between points at all other events.
In 1994, in a post match interview at Wimbledon Federer was told that Nadal had averaged 25 seconds between points. His immediate reaction was “not cool.” By the rules in place at the time, Nadal’s average was a full 5 seconds above the allowable time. Even if the allowable time was 25 seconds, a significant number of violations would also have occurred because that’s how math works.
Like almost everything else at the tour level, television drives a significant amount of the concern. Less time between points is essential to speeding up the pace of play. In fact it is pretty much the only lever to pull without tampering with the points themselves.
In “Rule Changes in the News, 1994 Edition” I wrote about how chairs were not historically provided for players on the court until the mid seventies and that it had been attributed to slower play. That is where the needs of television pushes pace of play in the opposing direction. Television needs commercial breaks.
In 2018, the US Open was the first Grand Slam to unveil the use of a shot clock to enforce the pace of play rule and to increase visibility of time violations when they occur. The clock starts after the umpire announces the score. This gives the umpire leeway to allow extra time between very long points simply by delaying the announcement of the score. The innovation was also in use in the series of tournaments leading up to that event to test out the concept.
When the service end switches after even numbered games, the clock is supposed to start once all the balls have been positioned at the opposite end of the court. I am still trying to figure out an approach to win a bar bet off that bit of trivia.
For the vast majority of players who play without the benefit of a chair umpire and will never be subjected to a shot clock, probably there really isn’t much relevance to the amount of time that is actually allowed. This shifts the focus to what the rule explicitly states.
Essentially the receiver needs to be ready when the server is ready to serve. The server needs to play at a reasonable pace and ensure the receiver is ready to serve when the serve is delivered.
Tomorrow we will delve into the second half of this rule, which is where things can get a little more interesting.
- United States Tennis Association (2020) Friend at Court. White Plains, NY
- Roger Federer criticises Rafael Nadal again over Wimbledon slow play, Simon Cambers, The Guardian, June 27, 2014
- Citi Open implements shot clock, emulates MLB in desire to improve pace of play, Amanda Christovich, USA Today, July 31, 2018.
