Alcaraz lashes out at refereeing: "It makes no sense!"
It's probably already the feat of the week. Carlos Alcaraz, defending champion, fell in the last 16 at Queen's. Up against a Jack Draper who has been irresistible on grass since the start of the season (7 wins in 7 matches), the Spanish prodigy failed to find the means to destabilize his opponent.
Questioned in a press conference, Alcaraz made a point of expressing his irritation at a change in the rules governing ATP matches. Indeed, the governing body of men's tennis wanted to take advantage of the grass-court season to test a new rule.
Until now, the 25-second stopwatch, designed to limit the latency between points, was triggered by the referee, but this is no longer the case. To automate the process, the stopwatch is now triggered automatically, three seconds after the end of the previous point.
Clearly very upset, the world number 2 expressed his incomprehension: "This new rule is madness, and it's really bad for the players. The stopwatch never stops and is activated directly after the previous point.
If I finish the point at the net, I don't even have time to fetch the balls. I'm not talking about fetching the towels, no, I'm talking about not even having time to fetch the balls. It's insane!"
