If the ATP is driven by profitability, they'll find a way to get around it.
The writing's been on the wall for some time now; there's no approaching the bar set by Federer, Djokovic, and Nadal. They wanted Mt. GOATmore, and they got it.
The most logical solution is to do away with grass, entirely.
Yeah, there's gotta be a contingency plan.
Young thirties.... for my sake.
You really have glanced on a huge problem which is the handing of the torch to a next generation. I don't think Borg dropping off the face of the earth or McEnroe's game going belly up after 1984 were really helpful. Even Lendl kind of went the way of the dodo bird with his grass infatuation just as Agassi, Sampras, et al were coming on. Fed fans pine for the torch being handed off from Agassi/Sampras, but hardly at all.
The sport is still digesting an extra week of grass court tennis the last few years (a welcome move), but short of getting another major to go back to grass I see little hope for your plan. Auz Open's stature has risen greatly since they went to hard courts and that is the only hope. No way US Open will change with grass courts almost nonexistant these days.
Right on.You really have glanced on a huge problem which is the handing of the torch to a next generation. I don't think Borg dropping off the face of the earth or McEnroe's game going belly up after 1984 were really helpful. Even Lendl kind of went the way of the dodo bird with his grass infatuation just as Agassi, Sampras, et al were coming on. Fed fans pine for the torch being handed off from Agassi/Sampras, but hardly at all.
Now we have a gap in play with a unique opportunity to hand off the reigns while the Big 3 still have excellent form; The Diamond Age. So really for basically seven months (one year for Fed) we are blind:
1. Will the Big3 ever find their best form with a short warm up period before 2020 US Open/RG
2. Will a budding slam finalist like Medvedev have a ghost of a chance to play into the great form that almost got him the US Open?
3. If Thiem sweeps the 2020 US Open/RG what will we say then if that ends the era?
I'm not sure what you mean by reset, thinking from the title you were talking about rankings, but you appear to have a much grander vision and I'm reading.
Its been obvious the changing of court speeds by all the tournaments to woo the Big 3 for years now.
So yes tennis in its greed has been doing that (and it does make sense as you are always trying to build up tournaments to greater heights.) Asia will want the tour back.
Young thirties.... for my sake.
But a real opportunity was lost by the ATP this year, and they will regret in about 3-5 years.
Agreed on the homogenization bugaboo; the issues that would arise from that have been pretty apparent for some time.Its been obvious the changing of court speeds by all the tournaments to woo the Big 3 for years now.
I'm not sure how you reset. We are resetting the schedule this year and maybe next. Justice in a sort of way that European tennis is taking over the schedule from the Asian swing with its many Chinese touraments this Fall, but by that time in 2021 we better have a vaccine or we'll have far worse problems to deal with.
The backbone of the tour are its tournaments (and biggest players) so you can tinker with the schedule and now is the time to do it, but I don't think an achievable new schedule offers the opportunity for a reset in the terms you wish.
Right now tennis has a very unique opportunity to help lead the sporting community out of this crisis given its unique nature in prevent spread of the pandemic and its ability to handle even a loss of 50% of the players due to pandemic considerations. Golf is the only other popular sport that has this kind of invulnerable nature. Team sports you lose whole teams or enough players and your whole league is toast.
So I think a reset needs to take hold of this opportunity to expand the sport, and expand it with the Big 3 leading the way.
Elaborate half-truths.Agreed on the homogenization bugaboo; the issues that would arise from that have been pretty apparent for some time.
I guess they decided to make hay by leveraging every ounce of manufactured rivalries at the top, etc. But to continue milking that after like 10-15 years? That bubble was never gonna burst.
By "reset," I'm referring to a wholesale restructuring. The obsession with a top-heavy rotation doesn't do anything for incentivizing more fundamental growth.
This year is a wash. They need to look to the future with a plan that is less "all-in" and more "hedge."
The choice is simple, IMO:
A) Carry on pushing for short-term gains through relentless profiteering.-or-B) Move to lay the groundwork for a product that is less reliant on elaborate half-truths.
I think by profiteering you mean for short term gains you feel the tour is hurting itself in the long run with the inevitable vacuum for fans. Its an issue and I'd definitely claim the US Open of back tracking after 2018 surface change which hurt Nadal and probably helped Thiem and maybe even Djokovic who got to hoover up the trophy in the final. If you're going to do something for a good reason (which they had) stick to it, instead I'd view the change in 2019 as pure short term profiteering. If the tournamanets cared about the long run they wouldn't keep changing the court conditions over and over again. The word fraudulent comes to mind. But again, Fed is money which is success for the tour and events. I'm not sold on the short term hurting the long term as greater ratings boost the sport and those higher ratings in themselves will only help future years. Of course undercutting the rest of the tour well that's going to hurt at some point, but even as one not too happy about all of this, well the jury is still out. So that was A even though I started with B.
Good to hear. I used to say in my twenties when I was 29 when someone asked how old I was ha.Indeed, mid 30s starts at 34.
Early 30s 30-33
Mid 34-36
Late 37-39
We are the same age btw
"Intellectual exercise" works. In the context of the usual discourse here...?
More half-truthes?
), but many of them will pay off. If you are looking for Big 3 replacements you'll be waiting a long, long time. The Big3 also had things come there way with conditions/technology which is definitely not happening right now. If you remove the Big 3 from the equation, this is easily the most talented group of players the tour has ever seen. With perhaps the worst group coming just before them with Cilic/Delpo barely keeping their heads above water with one masters and one slam. Really Delpo has been the only other decent talent on tour basically until Thiem. That is a gulf of time where the Big 3/4/5 was just allowed to hoover up everything with even more ease. Soderling, Roddick, Davydenko, are some of the best of the rest (and Roddick well above these two), but no there is just a ton of talent on the tour right now. With the Big3 its the best tennis we've had in a long, long time.
Why Bartleby how positively mercantile of you.
"Intellectual exercise" works. In the context of the usual discourse here...?
Little discussed here translates to action.
But also... pandemic.
Usual rules don't apply anymore.
100%. This is a unique opportunity for tennis with time even to think about it for the powers that be. This is important despite reactionaries like @Bartleby"Intellectual exercise" works. In the context of the usual discourse here...?
Little discussed here translates to action.
But also... pandemic.
Usual rules don't apply anymore.
Why Bartleby how positively mercantile of you.
100%. This is a unique opportunity for tennis with time even to think about it for the powers that be. This is important despite reactionaries like @Bartleby
I'm glad somehow that we are only losing one major this year because this disruption in many ways has come at precisely the wrong time for the Diamond Age. We may come back to play and find the transition is already over and the storied generatinal clashes from the missing season gone for good with age quickly becoming an excuse. We should all fear this potential abrupt transition even though I'd love to see it.
How many have you lived through?
How many have you lived through?
Can't apply a historical precedent to something that has never hit the Tour before.
It's approaching "perfect storm" territory. And with the cash cows on their last legs anyway, why not try a new approach?
Further, it is bordering on catastrophic for this entire enterprise. And continuing to tempt fate is just digging a deeper hole.
In the immediate future, it goes way beyond recouping lost monies.
You do have a point here and I'm not totally on board with the more idealistic goals of this thread for equality for players or something. At this point the tour could really see a noticeable drop in depth (players outside the top 50 even) if the tour does not make it attractive for them to recover their careers. Still I don't see how this laudible goal does anything for resetting the tour.
And we are seeing that total freedom right now as the ATP is not reopening any time soon. What tennis we have now may be that potential competitor. Think of Laver Cup and its success. This is a time for possibilities and reflection. Literally as we write we may be influencing the upcoming ReOpen events. This is a unique opportunity for the tennis masses to break the control of the old guard with new ideas. Come on B!
Now that I can get on board with.
Hey I would be on that train, but I was told that it was not possible due to contracts and such. But yes, I agree.
A working model can be hammered out. Have little doubt of that.
