Murray backs radical tennis rule changes

Changes designed to speed up tennis, which will be tested in November at an under-21 tournament in Italy, are being backed by world No.1 Andy Murray.

World No.1 Andy Murray is supporting changes designed to speed up tennis which will be tested in November at the inaugural Next Generation ATP Finals in Milan.

The tournament for the tour's leading under-21 players will feature a new scoring system, no lets, limited medical timeouts and shot clocks as the men's governing body seeks ways to appeal to younger audiences.

The scoring system is the most-radical change to the traditional format, with five-set matches decided through first-to-four-game sets, instead of the usual six, with tiebreakers played at 3-3.

"Tennis is doing very well right now but that doesn't necessarily mean that's going to be the case in the future, so I think it's important to try new formats, different scoring systems and see if it works," Murray told reporters.

"It is good to try new things ... at least it's trying something different. You have to give credit for doing that, because tennis has often been accused of being too traditional, not wanting to try new things."

The only proposed change Murray opposes is the no-advantage scoring rule, where each game will be decided by a sudden-death point at deuce.

"I would prefer to try a shorter set with the same scoring, rather than the sudden-death deuce points," Murray added.


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Source: AAP



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