Expect shuttle runs to feature heavily in Stefanos Tsitsipas’s off-season training programme – although not for the reasons you might think. Chastened by the bathroom adventures of players who seem to live by the maxim that when the going gets tough, the tough develop a sudden urge to go, the ATP Tour has announced that restroom breaks will be limited to three minutes from the beginning of next season.
Billed as an attempt to “speed play”, the rule change will see players incur a time violation should they fail to complete their ablutions within the allotted period, which will start when they enter the washroom. Such interludes will be permitted only once a match, at the end of a set. A further two minutes will be allowed for clothing changes, which must be completed at the same time unless the chair umpire permits otherwise.
Protracted mid-match delays, often at critical junctures, have become an unwelcome norm on both the men’s and women’s tours, with players frequently accused of using toilet breaks and medical timeouts for tactical purposes. While long regarded as running counter to the spirit of the game, such pauses have not previously contravened the rules.
What Tsitsipas will make of the new regulations remains to be seen. The Greek, while hardly the first player to come under scrutiny over bathroom breaks, has become a cause célèbre for the issue in recent months. In August, Tsitsipas fell foul of Alexander Zverev at the Cincinnati Masters after leaving the court with his kit bag for an eight-minute comfort break, prompting a complaint from the German that he could be receiving coaching by text message. Tsitsipas, who denied the allegation, was then publicly called out by Andy Murray for taking similarly lengthy breaks during their opening round clash at the US Open.
“It was nonsense, and he knows it,” said Murray, who was particularly upset by an eight-minute delay before the start of the final set. “That’s the amount of time it takes for me to change my clothes and to walk back to the court,” the Greek retorted.
Not to be outdone, Jenson Brooksby took a 12-minute bathroom break during his four-set victory over fellow American Taylor Fritz in the second round of the US Open. “Crazy how much this is going on,” tweeted former world No 4 Brad Gilbert, who coached Murray between 2006 and 2007.
Tsitsipas, who won his showdown with Murray in five sets, also took a medical timeout after falling behind by two sets to one, a move the Scot greeted with scepticism. “It can’t be coincidence that it’s happening at those moments,” said Murray.
Whether deliberate or not, such stoppages can have a major impact on the outcome of a match, as Ashleigh Barty’s defeat to Karolina Muchova at this year’s Australian Open demonstrated. Barty, the top seed, was ahead by a set and a break when the Czech, overcome by dizziness in the Melbourne heat, took a 10-minute medical timeout. A refreshed Muchova returned to run away with the match.
In a similar turnaround, Novak Djokovic took a break for medical treatment while trailing 4-1 against Dominic Thiem in the third set of the 2020 Australian Open final. “Maybe [Djokovic is] feeling a little sick out there at the moment,” remarked former world No 1 Lleyton Hewitt in commentary, with the contest delicately poised at a set apiece. “He’s probably sick with the scoreline, down a double break here in the third set.”
Mindful of such incidents, the ATP is also set to limit medical timeouts to one three-minute stoppage per match, to be taken either at a change of ends or between sets. If a player is unable to continue until one of those natural breaks in play, he will forfeit the points required to reach such a point. The date at which the change will be introduced has yet to be announced.
It remains to be seen whether the WTA will follow the ATP’s lead and implement similar revisions. The WTA’s 2021 rulebook states: “A player may request permission to leave the court for a reasonable time for a bathroom break, a change of attire break, or both, but for no other reason.” Players are only permitted to change clothes at the end of a set, while toilet breaks must be taken before a player’s own service game or between sets, failing which time violations are imposed. The WTA’s regulations allow tournament referees and supervisors to deny washroom break requests if they are interpreted as “gamesmanship and/or flagrant abuse of the rules”.