When a Bathroom Break can really cost you: Sports stars who were penalised for going to the bathroom
One thing about sports is that people sometimes wonder what athletes do if they have to go to the bathroom during play. There are certain rules regarding bathroom breaks in sports but the recent case of Ana Ivanovic highlights that it can sometimes become
a problem. The tennis player was docked a whole game during a recent tennis match because she took an extended bathroom break. In the past other tennis players have also suffered the same fate as have some golfers. Can taking a bathroom break really interfere
with a player’s game?
The necessity of taking bathroom breaks was written into the rules of various sports over the years, because as all athletes are human, they sometimes have to tend to their bodily functions while playing. The thing about taking a bathroom break while in
the middle of playing is that if an athlete tries to hold it, it can affect their playing skills and their concentration levels. Needing to go to the toilet has both a physical and a mental effect on a player. Studies have shown, over the years, that it is
not only a player’s physical attributes that helps him/her win matches but it is also their state of the mind during a game that helps them win.
The rules of tennis are very clear when it comes to bathroom breaks. The rules state that a bathroom break must only be taken during a set break during a match or if it is taken during a set, it must happen before a player’s own service game. If a player
takes a break at any other time during the match, they do so on their own prerogative and they will be docked points for the time they spend in the bathroom. The reason this is done is because a player is discouraged from taking too many bathroom breaks during
a match and disrupt the flow of the match and the other player. Also it is a way to make sure that a player does not do anything illegal during a bathroom break or cheat in any way.
The women’s former world number 1 tennis player, Ana Ivanovic, recently found herself at the receiving end of punishment for an extended bathroom break. During a match at the recent Generali Ladies Linz Tournament being held in Austria, the world number
28, needed to go to the bathroom and asked the chair if she could. The umpire told the player to wait until the changeover but Ana misunderstood or just really badly needed to go and went anyway. She was docked an entire game for the length of time she was
away from the court. But the most interesting thing about it all was that she came back, found out she had been docked an entire game, composed herself and managed to win the match anyway. It turned out that she had eaten some bad yogurt before the game and
it had affected her stomach.
Something similar happened to the great Roger Federer earlier this year, but his reasons were a little bit different. During a quarterfinal match during this year’s Australian Open Federer took a bathroom break because he said that the sun was getting in
his eyes and it was affecting his game. He simply wanted to wait a few minutes until the sun moved out of his line of sight and he could then play the game better. Well the strategy seemed to work because he went on to win the match even though he was docked
a game for the break.
The problem with this incident and others is that a lot of players have over the years, found or tried to find ways to delay the game slightly to throw off the rhythm of their opponents to give them an edge. On court treatment for leg cramps was banned as
were bathroom breaks whenever a player wanted to go. These rules caused their own problems but it went some way to stop delays in matches.
In the future, players will continue to find ways to delay matches and throw off their opponents timing and rhythm and the governing bodies of tennis will have to find new ways to combat the phenomenon. But it seems in Ivanovic’s case the yogurt really did
a number on her stomach. Maybe a revision of the bathroom break rule is needed soon or maybe umpires need to start recognising genuine cases when they arise.
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