There are legends in tennis, and then there are forces of nature, i.e., figures who refuse to let tradition outweigh progress. Martina Navratilova has always belonged to the latter group. Even almost two decades after she last swung a racket on Tour, her voice still echoes across locker rooms, corridors of power, and the sport’s deepest debates. But…

Surprisingly, there has been a rule that she has time and again pleaded to be changed, but it still remains unaddressed by the authorities. Back in 2023, renowned sports commentator Steve Weissman appeared on the Tennis Channel podcast and said, “I’m saying no more lets on serves. It happens in every other part of the game other than serve. No more lets.” According to him, the rule lacks substantial reasoning and doesn’t align with any other rules. He urged this rule to be removed from the sport. Seeing this post on social media, Navratilova shared it on her X handle, with the caption, “Been screaming that for about 20 years!!! NO MORE LETS.”

Statistics say that no fewer than 715 matches were monitored in the 1990s, and they found that each match had around 4 lets on average, and 65% of the time, the let did not give any added advantage to either player. So, we can understand why Martina Navratilova has been raising this issue time and again.

What is this “let” rule, though? Well, a serve is called a “let” when the ball hits the net cord but still lands in the service court. As per Rule 22, such a serve is not considered a fault, and the server may repeat the service attempt. While some players have enjoyed the loophole, others have constantly raised their voices against the same, because this can not only lead to disagreements in the match but also break the flow of it.

Although somewhere around this time last year, ITF made a rule change to make things fairer, something that Navratilova has wanted for such a long time, sadly, it hasn’t been authorized yet. The tennis authorities have all watched the conversation rise and fall without daring to lift the idea into the realm of serious reform. For a sport that prides itself on evolution, from electronic line calling to fitness science, this issue seems frozen in time.

To the wider tennis world, the rule may seem like a small detail. To Martina Navratilova, it represents something bigger: a reluctance to embrace common-sense change. A hesitation that slows down matches to a significant level. Now, the question is, how long will the sport keep one of its sharpest minds waiting?

Even during the 2025 US Open final, Martina Navratilova raised this issue

From 2023, if we fast-forward to the 2025 US Open final, we’d see Martina Navratilova voicing this “let” issue during her commentary. Belarusian star Aryna Sabalenka successfully defended her title by defeating America’s Amanda Anisimova by 6-3, 7-6(3) in that match. But there was a moment in this match that became the talk of the town later on. We saw Sabalenka challenging a call early in the first set, thinking it was a let when it was indeed uncalled by the umpire.

Martina Navratilova saw this, and, while in a conversation on Sky Sports, she said, “That’s why we should just play it as a live ball. It’s such a stupid rule. I am really fed up with it. I have been talking about it for decades, it feels like! Why? Somebody made that rule 150 years ago, and we have not changed it!” Hearing her complaints, another former pro, Laura Robson, opened up on what, according to her, has made this rule remain unchanged in tennis.

Robson said, “Basically, the technology is so unreliable that it’s the same kind of numbers being called when it’s just the chair umpire, so there was really no difference when they looked at the data amongst all the Slams, whether it had the net machine. Half the time, it wasn’t even working, and most of the time, it was the chair umpire calling it anyway. There is just not a reliable form of technology for that.”

In the last phase of the season, every minute matters to the players, and we often see them struggling physically in these phases. So any changes that can help players to reduce the match duration are always welcome, no matter how small the change might be.

But do you know there are plenty of instances when we have found top players finding themselves on the right side of what now seems to be a wrong rule of the game, by many like Martina Navratilova? Yes, you heard that right!

In 2013, we saw Serena Williams snatching a victory against Ayumi Morita with as many as four service lets. Then three years later, Roger did the same in the QF of the 2016 Wimbledon. He had three lets in a row. There are plenty of examples like this in the tennis world.

In the Fast4 tennis events, we’ve seen them implementing the ‘No Let’ rule. Should the authorities now look into this issue seriously, or are we heading to yet another year, another slam, another reminder, and still nothing changes phase once again in 2026?