John McEnroe demands US Open rule is immediately abolished in live TV rant
John McEnroe has called for on-court warm-ups to be abolished at the US Open and other tournaments. The seven-time Major champion appeared live on air in Flushing Meadows, where he urged tennis chiefs to rethink the pre-match knock-up.
Players currently get five minutes to warm up on the court between the coin toss and the start of the match. If play has been suspended for a significant amount of time, including during rain delays, they also get more time when the match resumes.
But McEnroe believes most players are already raring to go by the time they step onto the big stages, and has proposed putting warm-up courts near the stadiums for any final reps. “The on-court warm-up should be abolished immediately,” the former world No. 1 declared.
“Players are already warmed up when they walk onto the court. The changes don’t have to be enormous, but there does need to be development.”
Shorter or non-existent warm-ups have long been proposed by those who believe tennis needs to get faster and eliminate extra time. The sport has already put a stop to never-ending matches at Majors, with a 10-point tiebreak now played at 6-6 in the final set.
And McEnroe says there must be more initiatives to speed up proceedings. “It is difficult for people to sit in front of the television for hours,” he added. “There weren’t even tiebreaks in the past. Until then, for example, the opening set of a match could end 28-26.”
McEnroe isn’t the only one who wants to see tennis become faster. Last month, 24-time Major champion Novak Djokovic proposed a radical overhaul of the scoring system to keep matches to a maximum of two hours.
“We should change the format of the scoring,” he told podcaster Nick Koutrakos. “Not play up to six games in a set, play it up to four. Possibly no-Ad. Best-of-five sets. Keep the matches within a two-hour window. It’s best for everyone.”
And the shorter warm-ups have already been trialled at the Next Gen ATP Finals, a year-end tournament for the best players aged 20-and-under, where those competing get just three minutes for their knock-up. They used to get one minute, and Carlos Alcaraz – who won the title in 2021 – hated it.
“The one minute of warm-up, you have no time to warm up. I would say for the player, you can’t warm up everything, every shot, the volley, the serve, the backhand, the forehand, at all,” he said. “I would say that you have to warm up four minutes to play forehands, backhands, volley, serve, smash, everything to start the match in the best way possible.
