My opinion
WTA should get rid of midgame MTO unless It's a real injury and
anyone can see it (rolled ankle or sthing like that)
Ivanovic uses it twice in last 3 day
I agree. Did Ivanovic's injury get that much worse during that game? She just did it because she was already down in the 3rd set. At least she didn't take much time in this one.
Risking one players health is not worth 1000 fake mto imo. So no I wouldnt change anything. If there is something urgent, player can take mid game mto. You cant see every injury. Yes Ana cheated today nd she got what she deserved and made to look as much of a joke as her boyfriend at the Emirates Stadium last weekend.
Risking one players health is not worth 1000 fake mto imo. So no I wouldnt change anything. If there is something urgent, player can take mid game mto. You cant see every injury. Yes Ana cheated today nd she got what she deserved and made to look as much of a joke as her boyfriend at the Emirates Stadium last weekend.
Unless it's obvious, the player should forfeit the game when asking for a MTO during a game. This way you don't force the player to play and risk worsening the injury but also stop them asking it midgame for nothing too serious.
I hate midgame MTOs but it really wouldn't be a good thing to restrict the medical attention a player is able to receive during a match any further... Any rule is going to be abused by some players so it's pretty pointless. How would you assess the severity of an acute injury on court? Not all are obvious to viewers and players would be withdrawing left right and centre.
Sometimes injuries aren't so obvious. It would be silly to see so many players retiring from fear of worsening a possible injury instead of being able to take a couple of minutes to get checked out and be given an OK to play/recommendation to retire.
Except in cases where some very important player for WTA Tour and sport of tennis is involved - so why risk anything that big just because some stupid rule :shrug:
Medical time-outs should last 5 minutes at the maximum.
After Martinez ruined Navratilova's momentum and forced her to get cold (considering she was in her late 30s and was nervous from having poor results that year and her opponent was just 18) in the '94 Wimbledon final, my opinion is that the rule should be designed to minimize abuse as much as possible.
Martinez should have not been able to use the MTO to win her only major and deny tennis a record 10 Wimbledon titles. If she had beaten Martina fair and square that would have been a lot different. But, she lost the momentum and was on her way to the loss when she did her long fake time-out.
If an 18 year old can't beat a 36 or 37 year old without taking a lengthy medical time-out then maybe they shouldn't be playing tennis.
Jakšić pulled the same stunt against KDK last year, too. It's very effective against old players so they abuse it. They get cold, stiff, and nervous while the young player goes back to playing freely.
Martinez should have not been able to use the MTO to win her only major and deny tennis a record 10 Wimbledon titles. If she had beaten Martina fair and square that would have been a lot different.
Don't cry for Martina, she is so rich/successful now and a tennis legend. That was Martinez's only slam and she is not really as widely known.
As for the mid game MTO, in case of extreme injury cases it is of course necessary but what I've seen recently is girls who have the mentality of "my injury is starting to hurt so I'll stop play while I get my head together/my opponent loses their momentum". That's just not fair sportsmanship.
Also it kills all the suspense and build up of the game/tiebreak. It takes the crowd completely out of the match in under 5 minutes.
LMAO @ the people who think this shouldn't be allowed. The health of the athletes is and should be paramount. Can you just imagine what would happen if a player got an injury and wasn't treated for it because it wasn't allowed, and because of this the injury became MUCH worse? The WTA would be up to their armpits in lawsuits and would probably have to fold. Yeah, that would be good for tennis
There needs to be a cap on the number of times one can take an MTO but these no mid game, no mid set rules will backfire. What if that game is when you are serving to stay in a match in a GS final where the score is 20-21 in the final set ? What if a player fell on the court and hit his/her head ( like Na )? Every one on TF will criticize the rule then.
And it's silly that a bunch of people on TF (90% of them never picked a racquet) think they have the right to decide which is a serious injury and which is not.
Momentum is an intangible thing.Uninjured player's momentum could be due to the fact that the player who was injured couldn't perform the way she wanted to and hence lost may games. And who knows, that little break in the form of MTO might give a much needed break to unijured player too.There have been numerous cases where players have regrouped after a little break. By saying that MTO's break players momentum you are strengthening the fact that WTA players are mental midgets with no brain of their own and all they need is a little lapse in time to go back to their state of total suckage.
If players think they're losing matches because they're forced to sit on a bench for 10 mins, they should practise sitting on a bench more often. Also, they're not actually forced to sit on said bench during the MTO.
Tennis players are pathetic when you think about it. A player sits down 5 mins and they lose focus, slightest noise put them off their game. Someone walking 200 ft away from them is interrupting their game. They always look for the slightest excuse they can find
Ivanovic needs to take these midgame MTO's against the Serena, Sugarpova, Venus, Vika's of the world. If she's going to cheat and disgrace the sport, at least create some real drama out of it.
If vital to continue play, it should be allowed. I don't know about when Lisicki thought something was weird and then took an MTO to get a shoulder message midgame. Match was almost over. It is hard to tell, though. That's why they have evaluations by the physio/medico staff.
I don't recall ever seeing Serena, Venus, or even Vika complain about an opponent's MTO.:shrug:
as we discussed this issue many times here, I think the solution is to lose the next game.
if you take an MTO down 4-5, the set is over. Next set.
If you are down 1-3, the score is 1-4 when the game resumes .
If it's during a tiebreak, you lose the next 2 points automatically. So at 3-4, score is set a 3-6 when the match resumes.
You can't worry about losing a game if you are really injured. Your health is more important than 1 tennis match.