Carlos Alcaraz explains which Next Gen rules he would use on ATP Tour and which ones he would drop

Tennis News
Carlos Alcaraz with the Next Gen ATP Finals trophy

The Next Gen ATP Finals trialled several new rules during this year’s event in Milan, but champion Carlos Alcaraz admits he was not fan of all the innovations.

Courtside coaching, shorter warm-ups, limited medical timeouts and timed bathroom breaks were the four big regulations that were on trial at the season-ending tournament.

Players were allowed to receive verbal coaching from the side of the court while warm ups were cut down from four minutes to one.

Meanwhile, on the back of Stefanos Tsitsipas’ extended toilet visits during the North American hard-court season, bathroom breaks were limited to three minutes with up to an extra two minutes for a change of kit while each player was only allowed one medical timeout per match.

Spaniard Alcaraz, who won the tournament after defeating Sebastian Korda from the United States 4-3, 4-2, 4-2 in the final, is keen on allowing courtside coaching on the ATP Tour, but he hopes that the reduced warm-up times is not implemented at the top level.

“There are some rules that I would like to keep for ATP, like the coaching, but there are a lot of other rules that I don’t really like,” he said.

“For example, the one minute of warm-up, you have no time to warm up. I mean, I would say for the player, you can’t warm up everything, every shot, the volley, the serve, the backhand, the forehand, at all.

“I mean, I would say that you have to warm up four minutes to play forehands, backhands, volley, serve, smash, everything to start the match in the best way possible. There are some rules that I would keep and there are some other rules that I don’t really like.”

Carlos Alcaraz

Latest