Alexander Zverev can count himself very lucky at the US Open this year, for a multitude of reasons.

The star was very fortunate to get through his first two matches, as he needed five sets to get the best of Lorenzo Sonego and Quentin Halys.

Since then, it’s been smooth sailing for the German as many of his key rivals have fallen by the wayside before the latter stages of the Grand Slam.

Zverev has played just two seeded players at Flushing Meadows this year in Alejandro Tabilo and Luciano Darderi, and neither man is currently ranked inside the top 20 of the ATP Tour rankings.

However, it’s Zverev’s actions away from his opponents that have inspired calls for a rule change at the Grand Slam.

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Zverev has bounced the ball 12,040 his serve motion in his first five matches at the US Open this, which is an incredulous amount of time wasted.

While a shot clock is in place for players to hit their first serve in 25 seconds, there are no rules in between service motions which is dramatically slowing down the play.

Zverev is not the only player guilty of taking so much time between points and the authorities really should try and stamp down the deliberate time wasting.

When matches are going so late into the night, and players are playing mammoth five-set contests, every second counts and speeding up the play in any way would be considered a success.

Even when a player is warned for violating the shot clock for their first serves, they then have free reign to take as much time as they want for their next serve.

It’s a nonsensical loophole that players have clearly worked out how to find a way around and several of the top players are using it to their advantage.

Novak Djokovic hinted at this when the rule was first introduced back in 2018.

“I actually feel like there is more time now than before because the shot clock starts counting down once the chair umpire calls the score,” explained the 24-time Grand Slam champion.

“Sometimes it takes several seconds before the chair umpire calls the score if it’s a long exchange or a good point and the crowd gets in,” added Djokovic, which implies it had not made the game any quicker at all.

There is far too much time between points nowawadays in the sport and a new rule between first and serve points must be added to try and speed up the game. It would solve many of tennis’ biggest issues.