Martina Navratilova’s radical Wimbledon rule change backed by two Grand Slam winners
Martina Navratilova called for a major shake-up to the rules during Naomi Osaka’s Wimbledon match against Karolina Muchova.
Navratilova, who won the Wimbledon singles titles a record nine times, suggested let calls should be scrapped after Osaka benefitted on serve.
At present, if a players’ serve hits the net and lands inside the service box, the player gets their first serve back and the match is restarted.
Navratilova believes the match should continue as play is rarely ever changed too much if a big serve clips the net.
Speaking on BBC’s coverage of the Grand Slam, Navratilova said: “Do away with that let cord, you know I talk about it all the time. Nobody’s moving forward on that, get rid of it, it’s useless!
“No play the let, play the ball, it’s a live ball. Every once in a while you get that dribbler that would be an ace, but that happens once every three matches, so just play. Most of the lets are just a little nick. Keep playing, speed up the game.”
Four days later, and Todd Woodbridge and John Lloyd have backed the idea of the rule change.
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While watching the men’s double final between Henry Patten and Harri Heliövaara vs Mate Pavic and Marcelo Arévalo, 16-time Grand Slam champion Todd Woodbridge was asked by John Lloyd if the let call should be scrapped, just like it has been in the junior game
“I think so,” said the Australian tennis legend. “I was recently out watching some juniors and you do get used to it and it’s just a matter of that change. It’s luck isn’t it? If you get a lucky net cord, it’s just a part of it.”
Lloyd was equally in favour of scrapping what he feels is an outdated rule.
“It also takes the umpires out of the firing line as well,” said Lloyd, who won the 1982 Roland Garros mixed doubles title, as well as back-to-back Wimbledon titles in 1983 and 1984.
“You’ve got to play every ball,” he continued. “They’ve missed some lets this week and some of them have been on quite big points as well. They’ve done away with [tremblers] at the Slams.”
Arthur Fery’s semi-final match against Alexander Zverev was marred by several missed let calls. Fery believed there was three times where the umpire missed the calls, and he even suggest Zverev agreed with one of them.
“I thought that there were a lot of lets, three in total, that she didn’t call. Sascha heard one of them, as well, that he told me he heard a let,” said Fery in his post-match press conference.
“The umpire was trying to tell me that it was coming out of the microphone, not out of the actual hitting the net. I mean, I’m not one to complain on court and I’m not one to hear poorly. Yeah, I’m pretty sure that she missed some net cords. That was the discussion, yeah.”
If Navratilova gets her wish of scrapping the let rule, it could safe a lot of hassle at future events.
