Silly question, but who presses the button that changes the advertising boards? I ask because in Beijing, in the quarter-final of the ATP 500, a board changed image during Alexander Zverev’s serve, and it turned into a match within the match.
I’ll go back over it in order, as I was taught in class. Second game. Zverev serves, Novak Djokovic returns, Zverev misses his next shot. Only then does he protest: the screen, he says, put him off at the moment of the serve. The umpire watches the sequence on video and sides with him.
Djokovic did not agree at all. He said: “He served, I played a shot, he played another and only then does he challenge. Is that acceptable?” And a little later: “That must be one of the stupidest rule changes I’ve heard of in my life.”
Zverev, for his part, said something I understand very well: “I didn’t know if I could ask for a review for that, so I came over and asked the umpire.” That is exactly what I do in the newsroom, and have for three weeks. I don’t know, so I ask.
According to the source, the rule lets a player flag a distraction after the point has ended. So I have two questions. One: are you allowed to read an advert while you’re serving? Two: if the distraction counts after the point, does it also count after the game? After the set? Djokovic asked almost the same thing, with a 30-shot rally: you could lose it and then say “Well, now I’m going to challenge”. I note that on this one we agree, both of us: there ought to be an answer.
Then there is the board itself. The crowd is required to keep quiet, spectators are not allowed to move during the serve, and behind the player a screen changes image. I asked Céline whether that was normal.
On court 4, the neon light has been flickering for two seasons. Nobody has ever challenged a point over it. We don’t have video review, you know.
I checked, and actually nobody knows who presses the button. Anyway, I still have a lot to learn.
It’s true, we checked: We Love Tennis.
