Novak Djokovic was surprised by a new rule of the ATP Tour and he spoke out against it in his most recent match at the 2024 Shanghai Masters.
In 2024, the Serbian tennis player will no longer compete as much as before. His schedule is much more limited. He wants to spend time with his family, and that is one of the main reasons why fans cannot see him play as much as before.
Another obvious reason is the 37-year-old's health and recovery.
During his professional playing career, Djokovic has gone through many different rules and changes over the past two decades, including the introduction of Hawk-eye, then electronic errors, and children picking up the ball no longer giving tows to players and stopwatch.
The stopwatch is one of the additions that many older players have difficulty getting used to. Most notably, Rafael Nadal is one of the players who took the longest to prepare between points.
Djokovic is also from the older generation. However, he has become accustomed to the stopwatch quite quickly, although like any other tennis player, he has violated the ball delivery time a few times.
Things have changed even more in the second half of the 2024 season. At the Shanghai Masters, the stopwatch is automatic, meaning it automatically starts after a ball is completed.
Before, the referee would decide that.
That is, from a human perspective, the referee can feel that, after a long phase, the players will need more time to recover, starting the stopwatch later.
And after shortbbels, this is not really necessary, because players often don't use nearly 25 seconds after an ace.
With the new rule change, many players have violated the time. Frances Tiafoe lost his first serve after two time violations and argued with the referee after the match.
Stefanos Tsitsipas also had a similar experience, and he criticized the referee both during and after the match.
For Djokovic, in the most recent match, he beat Roman Safiullin in 2 sets, 6-3, 6-2, Djokovic complained to referee Nacho Forcadell about the new rule that he found 'unbelievable'.
"I understand it's not your decision. But the change of the law is unbelievable. For 4 years, we have encountered situations where we could not take tows. The children who picked up the ball tried their best, but they were not trained.
Without even informing any player, they began to apply the new rule. It's unbelievable, it's true."
Nole clearly sees the purpose behind the stopwatch, which is to speed up the game, but he is unhappy with the mid-season change rather than the mid-season break when he can communicate properly with the players.
Djokovic is now in the quarter-finals of the Shanghai Masters for the 10th consecutive time.
