The pressing issue arose once again on Saturday at the ongoing Delray Beach Open, when Stefan Kozlov accidentally made contact with a BMW car that was parked inside the court for advertising purposes. The American couldn’t return a serve made by his opponent Tommy Paul from the deuce court, since the car was placed only a few feet away from his return position.
World No. 2 Daniil Medvedev found himself in a similar situation at last year’s Cincinnati Masters. During a baseline rally, the Russian inadvertently crashed into an on-court camera, following which he went into a meltdown. He proceeded to angrily kick the camera while complaining to the umpire about its positioning on the court.
In that context, Rublev believes the ATP could perhaps be more responsible when it comes to their equipment. Speaking to Tennis Majors, the Russian claimed that players are offered less space behind the baseline.
He also inferred that players would be safer on-court if the men’s governing body didn’t place cameras and cars in the close vicinity of players.
“I think that they need to change a bit the court and leave more space to the players” - Andrey Rublev
Rublev then referred to Medvedev’s incident in particular, asserting that players like him require plenty of room behind the baseline during matches.
For what it’s worth, the ATP does have a provision for removing on-court items, even though it is applied very rarely.
According to the “Equipment & Supplies” section in the 2022 rulebook, any object (even those meant for advertising purposes) that affects a player’s movement can be removed from the court at the match supervisor’s discretion.
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