Follow us on Google Discover Felix Auger-Aliassime is through to the quarterfinal of the Paris Masters, keeping alive his hopes of gatecrashing the ATP Finals.
Recently, Auger-Aliassime went into the top 10 recently and his hopes of making the Turin-based event continue to increase with each passing week.
The Canadian player was forced out of the Swiss Indoors event last week, retiring injured after losing the first set of his quarterfinal against Jaume Munar.
Auger-Aliassime seems to have recovered nicely, however, setting up a mouthwatering quarterfinal with Valentin Vacherot on Friday.
During his win over Daniel Altmaier, however, there was something that happened that could have cost Auger-Aliassime, and it’s perhaps time for the ATP to act.
Photo by Jean Catuffe/Getty ImagesThe ATP encouraged to change rules after Felix Auger-Aliassime match
Once again, a very strange rule has reared its ugly head on the ATP Tour and on another day, the Canadian might have been denied the win.
Former Great Britain tennis player Colin Fleming thinks it’s time for the ATP to act when it comes to how long a player is allowed to leave the court for during the interval at the end of a set.
After Auger-Aliassime had won the second set to force a decider against Altmaier, the German decided to leave the court – as he’s permitted to – and didn’t return for almost ten minutes.
Fleming isn’t a fan and said on Sky Sports Tennis: “It’s too long for me. We have brought these rules in to make sure there is not too long a delay, but it seems like it’s an excuse to use the full amount of time.
Players take their time getting there and back, but I’m not sure it should take that long, particularly in an indoor tournament like this.
“It is not far to go to get to the changing rooms and get sorted.
“The unfortunate thing about it is that it’s well within the rules for Altmaier, but it can be pushed to the limit to break your opponent’s rhythm and put them in the freezer. Felix has had to stand there for seven minutes.”
This is creeping into tennis and many consider it as a bit of a dark art and perhaps it’s time the powers that be make a bit of a tweak to the permitted amount of time available for a break between sets two and three.
On this occasion, Auger-Aliassime didn’t let it faze him to the point where he managed to break his opponent shortly after his time-out, but that hasn’t always been the case.
Iga Swiatek riled Madison Keys during Australian Open
One very high-profile situation of this happening recently came back in January when Swiatek played Keys in the Australian Open semifinal.
The controversial moment came at the end of the second set. Swiatek left the court for an extended break and received backlash from fans for doing so.
Keys wasn’t impressed either and expressed her concern to pretty much anyone willing to listen to her out on the court.
The American did prevail in that match, but other incidents like this have occurred too.
Stefanos Tsitsipas was slammed for his lengthy toilet breaks in 2021 and it seems crystal clear at this stage that something needs to be done to combat the gamesmanship element of it.