WIMBLEDON, England — The Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt can complete a 200 meters in the time it takes the Spanish tennis player Rafael Nadal to start some of his points.

Nadal will often take 20 seconds or more to deliver his first serves, owing to a ritual that includes bouncing the ball a few times, tugging at his shorts, pinching the fabric on his left shoulder, then his right shoulder, bouncing the ball, swiping at his nose, his left ear, his nose, then his right ear, tucking his hair behind his left ear, then his right ear, and bouncing the ball a few more times.

Nadal squeezes the clock the way he does the lines with his heavy topspin forehand. If he were a tennis writer, Nadal would check his Twitter feed, his email and his Facebook page between each paragraph of his deadline story, making his editors squirm as much as fans do in their seats at his matches, waiting for him to deliver.

Nadal received two time-violation warnings during Wimbledon’s first week, but that hasn’t appreciably slowed him in his quest for a third title at the All England Club. It could be a different story next month at the United States Open, where a countdown clock between points will be introduced for the first time in the main draw of a Grand Slam event.