Martina Navratilova wants major tennis rule | Sports News

Martina Navratilova has renewed her marketing campaign for tennis to get rid of service lets at Wimbledon, calling that ingredient of the rule “useless.”

The nine-time champion made her most up-to-date appeal to speed up match play during the ladies’s singles quarterfinal between Karolina Muchova and Naomi Osaka. Navratilova, 69, was offering commentary on the BBC’s broadcast when Osaka obtained a let call on serve after putting the web wire.

As per long-standning tennis rules, she was awarded her first serve again as a result of her unique serve touched the web and dropped within the service box, as would even have occurred if it had contacted the receiver.

Speaking on BBC One, Navratilova mentioned, “Do away with that let cord, you know I talk about it all the time. Nobody’s moving forward on that; get rid of it, it’s useless!”

“No, play the let, play the ball, it’s a live ball. Every once in a while, you get that dribbler that would be an ace, but that happens once every three matches, so just play. Most of the lets are just a little nick, keep playing, speed up the game.”

Wimbledon notably doesn’t apply the rule in its boys’ and women’ competitions – which Jordan Lee and Anna Pushkareva received at this yr’s championships, respectively – following a modification throughout all Junior Grand Slam tournaments in 2018.

They additionally implement the identical strategy on the Next Gen ATP Finals.

Navratilova has been vocal about her need for a rule change for more than 20 years.

When tennis commentator Steve Weissman referred to as for “saying no more lets on serves” on the Tennis Channel in October 2023, she fired back, “Been screaming that for about 20 years!!! NO MORE LETS!!!!”

Weissman elaborated, “It happens in every other part of the game other than the serve. No more lets.”

The matter resurfaced during final yr’s US Open ladies’s singles remaining, prompting Navratilova to declare on Sky Sports, “It’s such a stupid rule. I am really fed up with it.

“I’ve been speaking about it for many years, it seems like! Why? Somebody made that rule 150 years in the past, and we’ve got not modified it!”

John McEnroe echoed similar sentiments at last year’s tournament, stating on BBC Radio 5 Live’s 6-Love-6, “Play lets, I’d play lets.

“I think that is more exciting, but the top players would not want it because it adds an element of uncertainty and luck. That is why I don’t think you will see it, but I would like to see it.”