Judy Murray's plea for tennis rule change seen at Wimbledon after chiefs U-turned

Wimbledon have adopted a rule change that Judy Murray campaigned for back in 2018. The issue stems from when Fernando Verdasco berated a ball kid for not bringing him a towel quickly enough, prompting Murray to publicly criticise him and call for a rule amendment, arguing that players should fetch their own towels rather than relying on ball boys and girls.

During the 2018 Shenzhen Open semi-final, Judy Murray, Andy and Jamie's mother, called out Verdasco on X, formerly known as Twitter. She posted accompanied by an angry emoji and tagged both the ATP and WTA tours: "What about a rule that makes players get their own towels? And the ball kids just look after the tennis balls?"

Then during the pandemic, new protocols were introduced to stop ball kids from handling players' sweat-drenched towels in order to reduce the risk of germ transmission. Before that, managing towels had been among their duties at Grand Slam tournaments. Under the stricter hygiene protocols, players were required to retrieve their own towels during points.

However, in 2024 with the pandemic over, the ATP board meetings confirmed a reversal. The board approved a rule change to permit players to request and be handed towels between points, as was customary before the COVID-19 pandemic. All ATP tournaments must accommodate this provision.

Nevertheless, for the 2026 Wimbledon tournament, competitors are obliged to return their towels to their seats or leave them hanging over the wall. This means players must walk to the rear of the court to collect and return their own towels from designated towel racks.

Meanwhile, ball children are exclusively responsible for retrieving and feeding balls, passing refreshments, holding umbrellas and maintaining the court to provide players with shelter on court. The rule change reflects a balance between player convenience and Wimbledon's specific requirements for the Championships.