Overview
- In Saturday’s US Open semifinal Alexander Zverev beat Karen Khachanov in straight sets but was hit with an on-court time violation after an extended ball-bouncing routine that Khachanov said “annoys a lot of players.”
- Broadcasters and ESPN statistics showed Zverev had bounced the ball more than 12,000 times during the tournament, a figure that focused attention on how long he takes between first and second serves.
- Zverev told reporters he is not doing the routine on purpose and said he “has no idea” why the bouncing increased, while continuing to defend the habit as within the rules when the shot clock is not expiring.
- Former players including Andy Roddick and Sam Querrey urged concrete rule changes such as a separate fixed clock for second serves and limits on restarting a toss to prevent perceived gamesmanship.
- Under current rules servers get 25 seconds to start their first serve and chair umpires judge delays before a second serve so no formal change has been made yet and tournament officials may face pressure to issue clearer enforcement or new timing measures before the final.