On a cool Wednesday afternoon before the US\u00a0Open last year, Daniil Medvedev and Alexander Zverev were busy fine-tuning their games in an intense practice set at Louis Armstrong Stadium. Danielle Collins and Christian Harrison, semi-finalists in the mixed doubles tournament, were scheduled to take their place at the hour and the American pair duly arrived a couple of minutes before their allotted slot.<\/p>\n
An amusing scene soon unfolded. Medvedev and Zverev were clearly desperate to continue playing for a little longer, but their court time had run out. The pair began to sheepishly deliberate over whether to attempt to play another game, even lining up on the baseline again, and they still occupied the court past the hour. Finally, they admitted defeat, allowing Collins and Harrison, who\u00a0had been standing quietly on the sidelines, to begin.<\/p>\n
Although tennis players happily train with their rivals throughout the year, the practice court can also be a source of friction. Some players are particularly irritated when some of their colleagues inconsiderately extend their practice sessions past their scheduled court time. An unwritten\u00a0rule in professional tournaments around the world: do\u00a0not hog the practice court.<\/p>\n
Many people shrug off poor timekeeping from their peers, but for others this is a cardinal sin. Gabriel Diallo, a talented young Canadian player ranked No 41 in the world, smiles widely: \u201cSome people abuse their time. It\u2019s one hour, they push it to 1.05, 1.10. I\u2019m Canadian so I hate confrontation. I just let people play, maybe too\u00a0much.\u201d<\/p>\n
The subject similarly prompts a chuckle from Coco Gauff: \u201cIt\u2019s happened on tour now more so than juniors,\u201d she says. \u201cYou definitely get some people that you know will push their time two, three, four minutes past. I\u2019m not on the bar with that. If I\u2019m on the court, I\u2019ll ask my coach the time. I don\u2019t like to be that player that goes over their time. I\u2019m going to stop literally maybe even a minute before, especially if they have to clean the court [on clay].\u201d<\/p>\n
A practice court handover can be awkward on both sides. Trying to finish a session on time and on the right note is not always a pleasant feeling, as stressed by Emma Raducanu: \u201cSeven out of 10 times you end up double faulting,\u201d she says. \u201cThat\u2019s what happened to me today and I had a good practice. Maybe you feel pressure with the people coming on, especially if they\u2019ve got a team of eight people in total. It is always a funny little interaction because the [final] point usually ends up being either terrible or unbelievable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coco Gauff in a practice session in Melbourne. Photograph: Marcin Cholewinski\/Zuma Press Wire\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n
Court time is precious at nearly every tournament and few players are allocated as much training time as they would like. There is also a difference between the time and quality of courts available to top players and the rest. This can lead to further resentment when higher-ranked players still take their time.<\/p>\n
Jessica Pegula, who spent much of her career outside the top 100 before a mid\u2011career breakthrough, notes how differently she was treated as a lower-ranked player, even at the US Open, her home tournament: \u201cI\u00a0was back in the park smelling all the weed and all the smells New\u00a0York City has to offer,\u201d she says. \u201cThey were completely different courts too. They were so fast, and they were nothing like the match courts. I\u2019ve definitely seen a shift in my practice courts and my times and what courts I can get now that I\u2019m a top player. I guess you could say it\u2019s unfair a little bit, but I also think sometimes you\u2019ve earned that right.\u201d<\/p>\n
Perspectives are varied on the best way to react when another player is hogging the court. Pegula believes most players are flexible and understanding, but she does not hesitate to make her presence felt when necessary: \u201cIt is kind of funny, because you walk out and stand around: \u2018All right, your time\u2019s up,\u2019\u201d she says. \u201cYou go up and stand there, bouncing the ball. Like, \u2018OK,\u00a0it\u2019s time to get off.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Gabriel Diallo says he takes a \u2018very Canadian\u2019 approach to practice-court etiquette. Photograph: Kobe Li\/Nexpher\/ZUMA Press Wire\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n
Gauff is similarly proactive when the player before her is taking too long: \u201cThere are some people that go over [the time limit] and you\u2019re kind of standing and you start making your way further and further on the court,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u00a0don\u2019t mind [players taking their time] as much, but it\u2019s just, like, acknowledge it sometimes. If someone [says]: \u2018Sorry, I have a match, I just want to hit a few more serves.\u2019 I\u2019m, like: \u2018OK, cool.\u2019 But the worst is if the player just keeps going like they\u2019re not in the wrong. And then they don\u2019t say sorry after. And I\u2019m like: \u2018OK, noted.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
During the early rounds of the US Open, Cameron Norrie had the pleasure of waiting for Novak Djokovic and Zverev to finish their practice session. As the hour came to an end, Norrie turned to his fitness trainer: \u201cIt was like 59\u00a0[minutes past]. I was trying to push my fitness trainer on to put a bit of pressure [on them]. He was like: \u2018No, I don\u2019t want to go!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Others take a more passive stance, waiting patiently for the player before them to finish. Diallo chooses peace, but he is still judging the player for every additional second they spend on the court during his practice hour: \u201cI think at a certain point, it\u2019s ridiculous. If you\u2019re finishing up your serves, OK fine. I don\u2019t think at this stage it\u2019s going to make a difference how you\u2019re going to play.<\/p>\n
A smile creeps across Diallo\u2019s face as he continues: \u201cI just sit and watch them until when they\u2019re going to be satisfied that: \u2018OK, I\u2019ve had enough and I can go and be calm now about my match.\u2019 Very\u00a0Canadian.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On a cool Wednesday afternoon before the US\u00a0Open last year, Daniil Medvedev and Alexander Zverev were busy fine-tuning…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":405299,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[99,428],"class_list":{"0":"post-405298","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=405298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405298\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/405299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=405298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=405298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}