Carlos Alcaraz says he has made his feelings clear about his unhappiness with chair umpires’ strictness when it comes to the shot clock rule as he admitted that he doesn’t have much hope that things will change.
The world No 1 slammed the “s***” rule during his recent title run at the Qatar Open after he got involved in an intense exchange with the chair umpire following a time violation during his quarter-final win over Karen Khachanov.
Alcaraz told his team: “The ATP rules are always s***, it’s s***, s***” and also addressed the issue during his post-match press conference as he stated: “Personally, I think there should be a bit more leniency, even a reconsideration of the rule, because in such tough matches, the same thing always happens, and to me, it’s ridiculous.”
It wasn’t the first time that he has had a problem with the rule, as he also got involved in a spat during the Japan Open last year.
Although he didn’t have any issues with the 25-second shot clock rule during his second-round win over Grigor Dimitrov at the Indian Wells Open, the seven-time Grand Slam winner was quizzed about the issue after his match.
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“To be honest, I haven’t spoke to them. To be honest, nobody came to me to ask me what is my opinion about it,” Alcaraz said.
“So it’s like, yeah, it’s gonna be like that, I would say. I don’t want to waste my time, to be honest, because there have been other situations that you go to complain or to give your opinion and then nothing changes at all, so I don’t want to waste my time. They already know my opinion, what’s it been like for me.
“So let’s see if they’re gonna change it or not, but I just really want to be focused on other things.”
When asked if the rule is more about discretion, he replied: “Yeah, I think so. We could see that there are different umpires. So it’s just about with one or two probably, the same guys that just have been a problem with a lot of matches.
“But there are other umpires that they are flexible about it. I would say if they understand about tennis, they know how to do it. The guys who are really strict and not having that left hand (phonetic), let’s say, is because they don’t understand tennis at all.”