Toni Nadal rips new rule complained at by Carlos Alcaraz as 'absurd' and 'harmful for the players'

Toni Nadal has ripped into the new rule which was trialled recently regarding the shot clock in order to reduce time between points efficiently. Carlos Alcaraz in particular was not a fan of this and slammed it.

At the time late last month, Alcaraz said that he was planning ATP talks over the new rule after voicing his displeasure about it. At Queen's, the 25 second shot clock starts automatically three seconds after the previous point which Alcaraz called crazy and Nadal had a similar view point on the issue. He called it absurd and harmful and that it makes tennis players become robots.

"This new rule is absurd and harmful for the players. When I finish the point at the net, I don't even have time to go and get the ball to serve. I'm not talking about going to get the towels, but the fact that we don't even have time to get the ball after a rally," said Nadal to Le Pais.

"The umpires' work is being reduced to that of simple point counters. A new rule that provides only 25 seconds of margin between the end of the point and the beginning of the next one: why was it created? Probably to capture the attention of the new generations, whose attention span is increasingly lower. It doesn't make much sense for players to have the same amount of time after an ace and after a long and intense rally."

"The umpires have the mission and responsibility to direct the direction that their sport must take in order not to lose its essence, to adapt to the new times and to maintain, if not increase, its spectacular nature. And the popularity of our sport often depends on the correctness of their decisions. The work of the umpires is practically reduced to that of simple point counters. What should be sought is to increase the percentage of time in which the ball is in play and to have long rallies in which the players must use different tricks and skills to win them. These are the type of fights that also attract a long applause from the public."