First Grand Slam to adopt a shot clock for the main draws

At the 2018 US Open in New York City (27 August to 9 September), a 25-sec shot clock was used for the first time in the main draws of a Grand Slam tournament. Previously trialled in the qualifying rounds for the 2017 US Open and the 2018 Australian Open, the shot clock is designed to speed up play between points. The chair umpire can issue a warning to players who fail to complete their service motion before the clock counts down from 25 to zero, and dock a point for a second violation.

Rafael Nadal, the No.1 seed at Flushing Meadows and an outspoken critic of the shot clock in the run-up to the tournament, was a high-profile casualty of the new rule during his second-round match against Vasek Pospisil on 29 August 2018, arguing that the warning he received for slow play was due to the fact that he was waiting for his opponent to be ready.

The introduction of the shot clock was overshadowed by “a multitude of other code violation controversies, the result of the extreme heat rule they introduced and a string of umpiring mishaps”, according to www.telegraph.co.uk in their review of the first week’s play at the 2018 US Open.

The US Open also introduced a 7-min warm-up clock for the 2018 tournament, and it was the first event to use Hawk-Eye instant replays in every match on every court.

Naomi Osaka and Novak Djokovic were crowned singles champion after an eventful fortnight at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York.