There are many odd rules in tennis which leave people perplexed and one regarding how the stewards handle the tennis crowd is certainly quite odd.
Tennis is quite a rigid sport in the sense that there are rules in place that hardly ever get bent. One of those rules is how the crowd is being handled during matches. Most tennis matches are played in relative silence compared to other sports and it's just been the etiquette in the sport for a very long time.
Some players have spoken out against it wanting a similar atmosphere to other sports but for most tennis players it would be very distracting and we'll likely never see it. Due to sounds being distracting we have a rule that doesn't allow people to just return to their seats during ongoing play. It happens during changeovers which is troublesome when you have a big crowd.
That was the case during the
Roland Garros final when a lot of spectators left their seats to use the restroom however they weren't all allowed back into their seats quickly. If you didn't manage to get back until the next set started you have to wait for the next changeover (3 games) and even then some people weren't left back into their seats because the queue was so long because of the number of people who went to the restroom.
You had a situation where people missed 5+ games of play of a match they paid a heavy ticket price for. All of that because players can handle minor noises during play. It's something leading tennis journalist
Ben Rothenberg called his biggest pet peeve. The situation was highlighted by another journalist Stuart Fraser on Twitter who wrote:
"Spectators who went out for a quick toilet break after the first set now struggling to get back into Court Philippe Chatrier at the
French Open. Waited three games only to find that there wasn't enough time for stewards to let the entire queue back in. Five games missed for those still waiting."
Rothenbeg responded:
"My biggest tennis pet peeve. Spectators should be allowed back in after every game, not just changeovers."
