How to Improve the WTA?

[adventure]

I've watched at least one match a day since monday and while I've tried to defend the WTA in the past, it's really impossible to do so anymore. Here are some oddities I've seen so far:

1. Azarenka, no. 1, playing before a few dozen people in a 10,000 seat stadium. Most are asleep or checking their phones.

2. Sharapova with a security detail of 5 personnel, all in suits, sunglasses and earpieces, just to walk to a match. WTF?!?

3. Kirilenko taking a half hour bathroom break to interrupt an opponent's momentum. And losing anyway.

4. America's sweetheart, Melanie Oudin, coming in 40 lbs. overweight, and making it to the 2nd round anyway.

5. Azarenka playing her first match and spraying balls all over the court like Ichiro Suzuki during batting warmup.

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I could go on and on, but here are some possible improvements:

1. lower the prize money for women. This gets rid of the b#tchy diva behavior which is completely comical and undeserved (Serena, Sharapova)

2. hold matches on courts with fewer seats (500 to 2000 during the first week).

3. enforce the interference rule: no more shrieking, howling, yelling and crying during points.

I don't know what else to add. Help me out here.

[jones101]

Originally Posted by adventure

I've watched at least one match a day since monday and while I've tried to defend the WTA in the past, it's really impossible to do so anymore. Here are some oddities I've seen so far:

1. Azarenka, no. 1, playing before a few dozen people in a 10,000 seat stadium. Most are asleep or checking their phones.

-Its not appealing to the French to listen to her wail on every ball like a demented owl. Even though her tennis is nice, she seems to be very offputting for live audiences, this will continue to be a problem for the WTA as long as she keeps winning, as they will soon have a no 1 that noone wants to sit in stadium for. Even moreso than Sharapova/Serena imo.

2. Sharapova with a security detail of 5 personnel, all in suits, sunglasses and earpieces, just to walk to a match. WTF?!?

-All players have this on the big courts, im assuming they do on the smaller ones too. Remember the 09 Final when that guy got in Rogers face? Its for safety and I agree with it. And the French obvioulsy like stylish security, hence the suits.

3. Kirilenko taking a half hour bathroom break to interrupt an opponent's momentum. And losing anyway.

-Im Going off her the more and more I hear and see her antics, She will do ANYTHING to disrupt an opponent. Who can forget her racket tapping stunt she tried on Sharapova?

4. America's sweetheart, Melanie Oudin, coming in 40 lbs. overweight, and making it to the 2nd round anyway.

--There seems to be a lot of players gaining weight recently, I don't understand it either. Its their job to stay in shape so its odd to me.

5. Enforce the interference rule: no more shrieking, howling, yelling and crying during points.

-Lol if they enforced to rule as rigidly as Azdareki did against Razzano, the Azapova's of the WTA would be defaulted and wouldn't make it out of the first game. But in some instances they should be called on hinderance as some are blatently amplified at times.

Just some opinions

[Sentinel]

Your first point about empty stadium is telling. I can't figure out the relevance of the rest. Also, I am not clear how your points will help improve WTA tennis.

Men's tennis has the same hitting back and forth for hours, each point a repeat of the previous. There are a few interesting matchups but otherwise it's the same boring repetitive thing, regardless or gender.

[goderer]

Stop the shrieking and make them wear more clothes. Then people could watch it normally.

[consigliere]

Actually i like the WTA. Sure its not as exciting as the men's matches but i love how unpredictable the whole thing is, you can never guess the winner at all which is kinda fun. you'd never ever see that happen in men's tennis.

[ductrung3993]

Sharapova, Kirilenko, Ivanovic and other hot chicks should play in bikini. Of couse, this does not apply to Schievone, Venus etc...

[drakulie]

For the sake of tv viewers and the ATP, the wta should go it's separate way. It was so nice to watch the Madrid masters as they barely showed any wta matches.

[ramos77]

They should use Ben Wa balls instead of tennis balls

[TheF1Bob]

You can't improve the WTA because the suppose top players lack consistency. Even the ATP Challenger Circuit has more credibility than them. Fact is, it sucks and should never, never be on terms with the ATP.

[Tcbtennis]

I guess it's that time of the year where the trolls come out to bash the WTA. They don't deserve equal prize money, the WTA sucks, the women are shriekers, blah, blah, blah. You guys seem to get your panties up in a bunch so easily. Enjoy life and worry about more important things. They aren't going to decrease prize money in slams. They aren't going to separate the WTA from the ATP at slams. The one thing they might do is address the shrieking but not in the current crop of players.

With the Internet there are other options to view tennis so you don't have to watch the WTA and have your heads explode with all the pent up anger you guys seem to have.

Believe it or not there are many who enjoy watching the drama of the WTA. It's like a soap opera with many twists and turns. Quite often the ending is not known until the very end. Unlike the ATP which is very predictable, the WTA can have you hanging to the edge of your seat, smacking your forehead in disgust, cursing at your favorite player. With the recent retirements and drop in form of a lot of high quality players things have fallen off a bit. But it will get steadier and better quality. Until then, take a chill pill.

[Hood_Man]

Make them play best-of-5. Ball bashing for 3 sets instead of two could tire players out, forcing them to either have a real plan B or try other things from the start to conserve energy.

Also it would give players more time to settle into a match. The men can get blown off the court in a first set too, but at least the second set isn't their last chance to do or die, they know they still have a chance even if they lose the second set as well. Even then the leading player's mind could go for a wander and lose a tight 3rd set, giving fans more to enjoy even if it doesn't then go to 5.
If the women go down a break in the second set after losing the first, that could be the match over right there (granted it often isn't, but you know what I mean).

I also don't buy the fitness argument. Sam Stosur, the Williams sisters, Caroline Wozniacki, I can see them being able to play for 3 or 4 hours across 4-5 sets, and if the others can't then it's an incentive to get fitter. Men cramp up too, fitness problems aren't exclusive to the one gender.

Also, as dramatic as some women's matches can be, they rarely match up to a competitive 5th set in the men's draw.

Give the fans something exciting more often, rather than as a rare treat.

[ChipNCharge]

Originally Posted by goderer

make them wear more clothes.

You think more people would watch WTA matches if they were required to wear more clothes??

[Flash O'Groove]

I totally agree with Hoodman and tcbtennis. If you don't like the WTA, you don't have to watch it and talk about it. And I agree that best of 5 would be a good things on the long term. Women couln't play a five setters match now because they are not use to, just like journey men can't too for the same reason.

[chmee]

Originally Posted by goderer

...make them wear more clothes

I think the classic promotor's approach would rather be make them wear less clothes

In earnest, it's a completely different game than the men's for natural reasons. Like women's soccer. But it has it's advantages: unpredictability, drama, much closer top draw and last but not least the eye candy factor. Also the shortness of the matches is a kind of attraction, so I wouldn't advocate Bo5 here.

I believe the GS have been open for both sexes since their very beginning, so why change that? Hardly the level of performance was more equal in the past. One can discuss about the other common events, but I cannot remember men's matches being generally more attented than the ladies'. Thanks to www almost every match is available for the fans anyway.

Since the Wozniacki year and half the fight for the top slots has become even more fierce and thus more interesting. So I generally see the WTA doing fine, despite few details like the shrieks, which will be taken care of at least for the coming generations.

[consigliere]

The WTA gets too much criticism that they dont deserve. I mean i prefer to watch a 1st round match between some 50th seed player and a top 5 player from the WTA rather than watch a Federer or a Nadal 1st round match. While there wont be much excitment, the unpredictable nature of the WTA match makes for a fun viewing whereas everyone knows what going to happen in a Roger or Nadal 1st round match.

[goderer]

This would make WTA better: get both players out on court, then flip a coin to decide the winner. Matches will be over in a few seconds, and it'd be much more better to watch.

[Warmaster]

Originally Posted by consigliere

The WTA gets too much criticism that they dont deserve. I mean i prefer to watch a 1st round match between some 50th seed player and a top 5 player from the WTA rather than watch a Federer or a Nadal 1st round match. While there wont be much excitment, the unpredictable nature of the WTA match makes for a fun viewing whereas everyone knows what going to happen in a Roger or Nadal 1st round match.

Sorry, but that 'unpredictable nature' usually comes with 50+ unforced errors. That's just enjoying unpredictability for the sake of it.


I actually enjoy watching WTA matches from time to time, but from an economical point of view it's pretty obvious they shouldn't get as much prize money as the men.

[consigliere]

Originally Posted by Warmaster

Sorry, but that 'unpredictable nature' usually comes with 50+ unforced errors. That's just enjoying unpredictability for the sake of it.


I actually enjoy watching WTA matches from time to time, but from an economical point of view it's pretty obvious they shouldn't get as much prize money as the men.

Well, its still fun watching and predicting who cracks up first

No one said anything about prize money, they dont play as long as the men and they definitely dont bring in as much audience so i think the prize money is fair.

[Netspirit]

Make the courts faster. Right now the courts are so slow that women have problems hitting through their opponents (heck, even men do - just think of that 6-hour AO 2012 abomination). Shorter backswings on faster courts should take care of too much yelling.

Stop toweling within games. Remove the second serves. Remove lets (either play them or award the point to the opponent on any net touch).

Make it faster. Make it a show. Less clothes, obviously.

[cluckcluck]

Also have each player (both ATP and WTA) carry two balls when serving. Nothing is more stupid and time consuming than faulting on a first serve then having to ask the ball kid for a second ball. Mardy Fish does this, it annoys me.