Novak Djokovic made headlines with his plans to revolutionise tennis with a litany of controversial rule changes.
In an interview with Nick Knows Ball, Djokovic said: “We should change the format of the scoring. Not play up to six games in the set, play it up to four, possibly no advantage. Best of five sets, keep the matches within a two hour window. It’s best for everyone.”
Djokovic’s appeals have been widely criticised by tennis fans, with some claiming an overhaul of the sport is not needed and others suggesting the 24-time Grand Slam champion is lobbying for the changes to help him in the twilight of his career.
Former world No 1 Kim Clijsters has now offered her opinion on Djokovic’s calls for change, and it’s safe to say she does not agree with the Serbian.
“I think there’s nothing greater than seeing a four or five hour match. And they don’t happen every day, right?,” she said on her Love All podcast.
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“But to have a few of them in a tournament, especially if you can have a Novak against Sinner or Novak against Rafa, Rafa against Roger, like those moments I feel stand out so much in the history of our sport. And it would be a shame if we don’t have that.
“So I don’t think I want to see that. But I get, you know, from especially from Novak’s side and I hear it a lot in the business world as well. There’s a lot of people who talk about that TV and it would make things a lot easier for a lot of parties that are investing into the sport.
“But I think as a player I’m also kind of old school like I don’t like to see a lot of changes to our sport. Like I remember when the on court coaching was happening, I was like what are we doing? Taking something that’s good and changing it.
“I’m pretty old school like that, but I like seeing those couple of matches, a Slam where it’s like this super intense and a battle. That’s what you don’t have in any other sport. So, I absolutely love that we have that.”
Djokovic’s ideas for a rule change would be similar to that of the NextGen Finals, which sees sets played up until four rather than six and no ad scoring.
There are also shorter changeovers, an eight-second shot clock, and balls are changed every seven games, rather than the traditional nine.
While Djokovic’s calls for change have made headlines, he is not the first player to call for changes to the sport and he certainly will not be the last.
