(Paris) The ATP, which manages the men’s professional tennis circuit, confirmed to AFP on Monday that it had changed the rule on toilet breaks during matches – now limited to a maximum of 5 minutes – for the 2022 season, after the controversies raised this year.
Thus, such a break will be “limited to a maximum of three minutes from the time the player enters the toilet”, with “two additional minutes to change outfit”, said an ATP spokesperson, confirming information from The team.
In addition, only one toilet break will be granted per match to each player and these breaks can only be taken between two sets.
Several incidents related to these breaks, legal but of questionable sportiness, punctuated the 2021 season. Twice at Roland Garros, in the round of 16 against Lorenzo Musetti and in the final against Stefanos Tsitsipas, Novak Djokovic took a long break off the court after trailing two sets to zero and turned the situation to his advantage on his return.
Tsitsipas also took long breaks of this type, especially in the first round of the United States Open where he ended up beating Andy Murray who said he had lost “all respect” for the Greek following this incident.