Changes YOU would make to the ATP/WTA tour

[harrpau7]

Ok, we have all seen that the ATP want to make changes to the tour, which is good, however they have experimented with stuff such as the Round Robin format, which does not work.

So what changes would you make, mine are listed below, let me know what you all think.

1) Change the Masters Series

I would have the following Masters Series events.

Shanghai (before Australian Open)
Indian Wells
Miami
Monte-Carlo
Rome
Queens
Toronto (not Montreal)
Madrid
Paris

Each Masters Series would have a main draw of 64 (96 for Indian Wells & Miami), all the finals would be best of 5 sets, and attendance would be compulsory. Also, there would not be back to back Masters Series events.

2) Have the Australian Open a week or two later, this would also allow for the Shanghai Masters Series to take place just before the Australian Open.

3) Eliminate the final set tie-break from the US Open.

This boggles the mind, some people consider the US Open to be the biggest of the 4 slams, yet it is the only slam which still has the final set tie-break, WHY??? This needs to be sorted so that the US Open is in line with the other slams.

4) Have the Masters Cup for the top 10 instead of the top 8 players.

Pretty simple, instead of two groups of 4, two groups of 5, still the same format, the top 2 from each group go through to the semi finals.

5) Have the final of Women's slams best of 5 sets.

With all the talk of equality and equal pay, why not have the women step up to the plate and have best of 5 sets, I would not expect it for the earlier rounds, but for the final could be a step in the right direction.

Any suggestions/additions?

 

[jackson vile]

#1 I would like the draws to be 100% computer generated, no special seeding and ect

#2 No night events

#3 no going from out door to indoor in same tournament

#4 no special treatment for higher ranked players getting to play in better courst with more advantages ie shade, less wind, ect

 

[Deleted member 4983]

-Cut women's pay in half.

-Instant replay at all venues

-Fifth set tie breaks at every slam. (God, who wants to watch a match for 8 hours, even the players agree with me on this one, thank you very much.)

-More night matches at big events, meaning, install lights at Wimbledon and Paris.

 

[Shaolin]

Miami should be a clay court masters tournament.

Davis Cup should be held every 2 years.

At least one all wood-racquet ATP tournament.

AO should be clay or just regular hardcourt. Rebound ace sucks, its sticky, expensive and no one uses it. The majors should be played on surfaces that are actually used in tennis. Wimbledon is the exception because of its deep tradition.

All non clay court masters series finals should be 3 out of 5.

Bring back the "no doubles alleys" type court for the ATP world championships. Doubles can be played on a different court at the same venue.

 

[Bottle Rocket]

jacksone vile... Why no night matches?

How about speeding up some courts again, like Wimbledon?

I think the time limits between points should be enforeced and many injury timeout rules should be changed.

I think you should be allowed more challenges per set, possibly unlimited. If you can get everything looked at on clay, what's the downside to having that on hard courts?

 

[caulcano]

1) Each Masters Series would have a main draw of 64 (96 for Indian Wells & Miami), all the finals would be best of 5 sets, and attendance would be compulsory. Also, there would not be back to back Masters Series events.

Main draw of 64 for all. Best of 5 sets final is good.

2) Have the Australian Open a week or two later, this would also allow for the Shanghai Masters Series to take place just before the Australian Open.

AO a couple of months later would allow everyone a break year end. Shanghai Masters Series is year end event so keep it where it is.

3) Eliminate the final set tie-break from the US Open.

Agree. Nothing better than a long 5 setter (Wimb 2001 is a classic).

4) Have the Masters Cup for the top 10 instead of the top 8 players.

Pretty simple, instead of two groups of 4, two groups of 5, still the same format, the top 2 from each group go through to the semi finals.

That would mean an extra game, so I presonally would like more tennis.

5) Have the final of Women's slams best of 5 sets.

With all the talk of equality and equal pay, why not have the women step up to the plate and have best of 5 sets, I would not expect it for the earlier rounds, but for the final could be a step in the right direction.

Agree. We'll hopefully see it in 2008, then slowly introduce it further down the draw.

 

[35ft6]

Play let serves. Allow 5 minutes of coaching right before the final set if a match goes into a 3rd or 5th set.

 

[harrpau7]

AO a couple of months later would allow everyone a break year end. Shanghai Masters Series is year end event so keep it where it is.

What I meant was when the Masters Cup moves to london next year, Shanghai won't have anything, so it would be good to have that as a masters Series before the Oz Open, as the Aussie Open is the grand slam of asia/pacific.

 

[jackson vile]

jacksone vile... Why no night matches?

How about speeding up some courts again, like Wimbledon?

I think the time limits between points should be enforeced and many injury timeout rules should be changed.

I think you should be allowed more challenges per set, possibly unlimited. If you can get everything looked at on clay, what's the downside to having that on hard courts?

At night time IMO the condition are very different and the player with faster flatter strokes will have an advantage right away.

IMO the idea is to keep things as equal as absolutely possible, it makes no sense to say a ATP player can't take this or that for performance enhancement, but then the higher players get all kinds of advantages the lower players will never see.

I agree with the time limits and injury time outs, the refs need to step it up and be more professional

#5 would be if you swear or throw your racket, you are fined right away, or points are taken away right then and there no warning.

 

[Moose Malloy]

1) eliminate super saturday at the us open, players should have a day of rest in between semis & finals.

2) the australian open should play both mens semis on the same day (as opposed to the way it is now, separate days) so no player has an advantage. also the mens final should be played during the day, with no roof closed, no matter how hot. mens grand slam finals should not be played at night. i understand the heat rule for the women though.

3) if you win an atp event, you automatically get entry the next year(wayne arthurs won scotsdale one year & had to qualify the next year, seemed a bit unfair) golf has exemption rules like this, why not tennis?

4) adjust the ranking requirements for over 30 players, tennis is too youth based, unlike like nba, nfl, etc, its not right that many quit just because they dont want to play so many events (see Borg, Bjorn for example)
The ranking system of the 80s seemed more fair & based on quality, not quantity. Best of 18 allows players to just throw away so many of their results, all events should counted for ranking(like an average rating)

5)Move masters cup to Europe. Paris masters series is so close in schedule to masters cup, many don't want to play in paris than take a long flight to china(I think Fed or Ljubicic said the distance between the 2 cities was a factor in not playing Paris last year. You can almost count on a lot of pullouts from paris this year.

6)bring back bonus pool. they used to give top players a big bonus for playing all nine masters series, that way you assure better attendance, since many players aren't really injured when they withdraw. this gives an incentive to show up.

7) reduce masters series to 6 events. remove masters series titles from cincinnati & canada. since they are both warmup events for the us open, they will have good fields anyway, no need to force players to play more(& back to back weeks no less) in the most brutal conditions of the year(summer harcourt) so close to a slam. or just change the summer schedule in general, they shouldn't be back to back weeks & so close to the us open(I remember canada used to be in july instead of august.

8) change miami or indian wells or both to har-true, too many hardcourt events on tour in general is a major reason that there are so many more injuries last 20 years.

9)make las vegas an indoor event, planning an outdoor event in vegas in late feb is not fair to players or fans.

10)maybe have another indoor masters between the australian & the clay season. there used to be a major indoor season in those months in the 80s, prior to the clay season there's no reason to have so many outdoor hardcourt events in Feb/March. heck that's a good time for a grasscourt masters as well.

11)change all indoor courts to carpet. you have clay specialists take advantage of so many clay events on tour, no reason fast court players shouldn't get the same treatment. all types of players should get a chance to flourish.

12)eliminate all events held the week before a slam.

13) change davis cup to every other year, its not fair that a country can win the cup in December & lose it by February.

14)allow on court coaching

15)increase prize money for challengers, these guys need to eat too.

16)more combined gender events(they are doing this in 2009)

17)this is kind of out there-limit coaches' salaries. it doesn't seem fair that the best players have the best coaches, if there was a "salary cap" ala other sports, this may help level the playing field & give lower ranked players a shot.

18)use best of 3 for the first 3 rounds of slams to help ensure better quality in later rounds(us open used to do this in the 70s)

19)eliminate tennis as an olympic sport. no one cares anyways except the Massus, Rossets of the tour.

20) add another week(or 2) in between French & Wimbledon

 

[tennissavy]

Replace the shotspot/hawkeye system with the slow motion "mac cam" which is far more accurate and have unlimited challenges regardless of being correct or incorrect.

Make all men's matches best of three sets.

Since the WTA matches generate more television ratings, more wta matches should be shown on tv than atp matches.

 

[caulcano]

Since the WTA matches generate more television ratings, more wta matches should be shown on tv than atp matches.

We, Britain, get to see more WTA matches than ATP ones ...

 

[tennissavy]

We, Britain, get to see more WTA matches than ATP ones ...

Well than you, Britain, are very lucky.

 

[araghava]

Change the game scoring to 1,2,3, game with the winner winning by 2 points. This doesn't make any difference to how many points are needed to win a game. However when a game reaches 3-3, it becomes similar to a tiebreak. It would add much more to the spectator value when a game score is 10-9 instead of add-in or add-out. Someone doing channel surfing would immediately know that a game has been going back and forth for a while.

 

[Nick Irons]

Some of the dumbest ideas I have ever seen in this thread; cut womans pay in half ? No night matches ? Computer generated seedings ?

 

[Mark Vessels]

1 serve only, no double faults LESS TIME IN BETWEEN

unlimited time for matches (no suspending of play unless other issues) MORE EXCITING

Best of 5 sets, NO TIE-BREAKS (TOO CHEAP IMHO) MORE TIME TO SEE

NO BUTT PICKING DURING, AFTER, OR BEFORE POINTS, (IF YOU HAVE A WEDGIE FIX IT DURING THE CHANGEOVER


Nonstop coaching

Prize deduction for bad sportsmanship

 

[mileslong]

Changes YOU would make to the ATP/WTA tou

i would have all the WTA players play in bikini's and high heels...except for svetlana kuznetsova and she would be required to wear a moomoo...

 

[thebigidiot]

a master series tourney on grass!

 

[Deleted member 3771]

I'd let the crowd make as much noise as they want any time during the match, ie- when theyre about to serve, during a rally, or any time. The players will get used to the nosie after a while.

 

[rfprse]

• Invest in the air time in major markets such as u.s. to have at least a weekly show on tour in a major sports network and daily spots in sports news (e.g. sports center).
• No dual gender events, including Majors.
• No hawkeye or no challenge system. If a more reliable line judge system is developed, it should be employed without a gimmick such as the current challenge system.
• Return the doubles back to a real tennis format.
• Longer grass season.
• Real players union.

 

[Nik]

Do away with 3 out of 5 set matches. They are simply too long for television or to watch in person. Also no tie-breakers in the 3rd set.

The serve has become too dominant in men's tennis. Allow one serve only per point. No service lets. If the ball touches the net and lands in - play it! These two rule changes should speed up play.

Doubles is dying. I like doubles. I'd like to see it on TV more and in person more. My solution (warning - this is controversial) is to have one set of rankings which is a combination of performance in singles and doubles events. Good performance in singles would be worth about twice as much as a similar performance in doubles. This would change the nature of the rankings to some degree, shifting the emphasis a bit to people with more well rounded games. Though the highest ranked players would still be the best singles players. And of course, doubles should be 2 out of 3 full, 6 game sets. As with singles, only allow one serve per point.

 

[kingdaddy41788]

Since the WTA matches generate more television ratings, more wta matches should be shown on tv than atp matches.

Are you freaking kidding me? That's the most BOGUS information I've ever seen on any thread!

 

[malakas]

Are you freaking kidding me? That's the most BOGUS information I've ever seen on any thread!

Actually that's true.

 

[ibringtheHEAT]

Actually that's true.

malakas with his short but sweet replies....


and it is true.

 

[Kaptain Karl]

I am aware of *some* WTA matches which have garnered larger TV ratings. I wasn't aware that was universally the case ... which is what tennissavy and malakas appear to be asserting.

I'd be very interested to see your support for the broad-brush claim....

- KK

 

[Supernatural_Serve]

enforcement of the 20 sec rule between points by a visible timer (like american football - penalty delay of game), but in tennis the penalty is loss of point.

 

[Fedexeon]

Best-of-5 only for 4 grand slams and the final of the 4 big Masters Series. =)

And also make Davis Cup a 4 year once tournament, that put it in a month.

 

[theballboy]

Since the WTA matches generate more television ratings, more wta matches should be shown on tv than atp matches.

http://2006.usopen.org/en_US/news/articles/2006-09-11/200609111158001089218.html
Television:
- The national overnight rating for the Men's Final on CBS Sports was 4.1, the second best rating for the Men's Final since 2002 when Sampras defeated Agassi.
- The Women's Final rating of 3.2 was a 3% increase over 2005 and a 28% increase over 2004.


In fact, the results are even more lopsided, really: the women's final for the US Open, and the Oz Open this year, were both aired during prime time. The men's finals for both major were aired during the afternoon. Maybe you meant international, but not since the all- Williams sisters finals has the WTA been drawing in larger crowds.

 

[theballboy]

The changes I would make:

Add some wooden court tournaments. Yea, I know, seems odd, but with the slowing down off all the surfaces, a few wood court tournies would let some hardcourters (mostly American) really shine.

Get rid of the challenge system. Like Roger Federer said, it makes the judges impotent. They are fearful of overruling calls now, and basically takes all accountability away from them. Plus, the current system is unfair. Players are only allowed two incorrect challenges, because unlimited challenges would slow down play to a halt. But when a player runs out, thast leaves them open to bad calls. Perfect example: the Williams Vadisova match, where Serena should've won a match point, but it was called in. Until ALL players get the same chance to challenge calls at any time in the match, the challange system should be scrapped. Use the millions of dollars on some training camps for kids or something.

More night matches. Night matches= cool. 'Nuff said. Especially men's final at the US and Aussie Open.

Lets should count. The timing may throw the reciever off, giving the server an advantage, but what about the random ball that bounces off the tape, only to land in the service box? It'd be an easy gift for the reciever.

Give every match a final set tiebreak. It makes the matches more watchable, and more exciting. Very few people can't see a two game lead coming, so by that time, the winner is pretty much known. A tiebreak however, can be decided in minutes.

Make the surfaces how they were MEANT to be again. Make grass fast, bounce low, and prone to wear. Make clay bounce high, and slow. Make hard courts the medium surface.

 

[THUNDERVOLLEY]

Some of the dumbest ideas I have ever seen in this thread; cut womans pay in half ? No night matches ? Computer generated seedings ?

I concur. Especially about the pay.

 

[jmsx521]

Shot-spot, Hawk-eye, Mac-cam (and other shot-calling technologies) no longer used for entertainment purposes and players no-longer challenging the calls; the job is given to the umpire to make sure the calls are accurate. The umpire has a monitor and can review any shot for accuracy; I predict that it will happen within 10 years.

 

[jmsx521]

...NO BUTT PICKING DURING, AFTER, OR BEFORE POINTS, (IF YOU HAVE A WEDGIE FIX IT DURING THE CHANGEOVER...

Or, the umpire has the right to embarrass the player by announcing it on the microphone. The same for blowing your nose on the court (the Agassi-way) without nose tissue. The umpire can say on the microphone something like: you’re at a public place, keep your bad manners at home!

 

[THUNDERVOLLEY]

No dual gender events, including Majors.

You must be kidding.

No hawkeye or no challenge system. If a more reliable line judge system is developed, it should be employed without a gimmick such as the current challenge system.

Judges can be quite incompetent. The Serena/Capriati incident was just another screw up in a long line of similar incidents. If you recall, John McEnroe's many on-court complaints were due to bad calls, and he was correct the majority of times--yes, his eyes were that good. Allow technology to move the sport forward, and avoid the kind of human error that (at times) may be caused by unscrupulous motivations.

 

[Cindysphinx]

1. No coaching between set breaks in women's tennis. This experiment has been quite lame. Half the players speak a language the American audience can't understand, and the rest of the coaches have nothing to say. Unfair advantage to star players with coaches who travel with them. OK to allow coaching for injury time-outs and bathroom breaks, as a disincentive to gameshmanship.

2. Men's matches best 3 out of 5. Asking anyone to sit through 4-5 hours of men's tennis is asking too much. Finals for both genders should be five-setters.

3. No catching the toss. You toss the ball to serve, you gotta hit it or take a fault. Come on, you're a pro. Hit the bloody ball.

4. 25-second clock between end of point and next serve.

5. No delaying play while some fan takes a seat. The clock should continue to run.

6. Mike the chair ump. I like to hear the arguments with the players.

 

[rfprse]

You must be kidding.

No. Isn't it obvious that I'm not?
If you want, you can go ahead and give us the same old song and dance about how they are great for tennis.

Judges can be quite incompetent. The Serena/Capriati incident was just another screw up in a long line of similar incidents. If you recall, John McEnroe's many on-court complaints were due to bad calls, and he was correct the majority of times--yes, his eyes were that good. Allow technology to move the sport forward, and avoid the kind of human error that (at times) may be caused by unscrupulous motivations.

Thanks for your thought, but I would at least try to understand what is written first (if I were you).

 

[VikingSamurai]

There are way too many tournaments on clay, and so affectively, you can get to # 2 in the world by just playing the clay court season.. Hence the reason why we have seen so many Spanish and South Americans swamp the ranking in the last 10-15 years.. Although Austrian, Tomas Muster got to #1 doing that..

I think there should be 6 surfaces. Grass, Rebound Ace, Hard Court, Clay, Carpet, and Synthetic Grass. (Why synthetic Grass?) because if all of us poor people around the world have to play on it, then so should the pro's..

I also believe that all tournaments should be based around the Major's. So if you are going to have 4 Major's, and then a 16 tournament season. Then begin the year with 4 Tournaments and a Major on Rebound Ace, 4 Tournaments and a Major on Clay. 4 Tournaments and a Major on Grass, and then 4 Tournaments and a Major on Hard courts.. Finish the season with the Masters Final on Carpet.

You can still have 100 different tournaments a year around the world. But all players have to play 4 of each surface for their ranking points to count. If they play 20 tournaments on clay, then only 4 of those tournaments should be counted..

Then you will see who the real professionals are... I think people like Federer, Blake, Hewitt would be fine. And I also believe that it will cut down on injuries if they play each surface evenly..

Some people have said that we need to put restrictions on the equipment such as racquets ect.. I dont believe that.. I just feel that you will even out the playing field if you have equal play on all surfaces..

 

[fastdunn]

IMHO,


1. surface: there is no varieties of surfaces right now. Basically
they are all *slow* surfaces ncluding green clay at Wimbledon.
Variety of playing conditions will promote more variety of players.
The tour right now is 90% slow court players.

2. ranking system: current best of 18 system with no bonus point
seems to be very uninspired ranking system. I insist that current
ranking system is at least part of the reasons why we have some
uninteresting (and not so good) top 10 players.

 

[kingdaddy41788]

I'd remove the challenge system until it's 100% accurate. It's only 97%. That doesn't sound like much, but when it's wrong, it's going to be on the really close calls, which is when the challenges are done. So in theory, it's wrong a lot of the time.

 

[kingdaddy41788]

IMHO,


1. surface: there is no varieties of surfaces right now. Basically
they are all *slow* surfaces ncluding green clay at Wimbledon.
Variety of playing conditions will promote more variety of players.
The tour right now is 90% slow court players.

2. ranking system: current best of 18 system with no bonus point
seems to be very uninspired ranking system. I insist that current
ranking system is at least part of the reasons why we have some
uninteresting (and not so good) top 10 players.

Green clay at Wimbledon? What tournament have you been watching?

 

[TheTruth]

Ok, we have all seen that the ATP want to make changes to the tour, which is good, however they have experimented with stuff such as the Round Robin format, which does not work.

So what changes would you make, mine are listed below, let me know what you all think.

1) Change the Masters Series

I would have the following Masters Series events.

Shanghai (before Australian Open)
Indian Wells
Miami
Monte-Carlo
Rome
Queens
Toronto (not Montreal)
Madrid
Paris

Each Masters Series would have a main draw of 64 (96 for Indian Wells & Miami), all the finals would be best of 5 sets, and attendance would be compulsory. Also, there would not be back to back Masters Series events.

2) Have the Australian Open a week or two later, this would also allow for the Shanghai Masters Series to take place just before the Australian Open.

3) Eliminate the final set tie-break from the US Open.

This boggles the mind, some people consider the US Open to be the biggest of the 4 slams, yet it is the only slam which still has the final set tie-break, WHY??? This needs to be sorted so that the US Open is in line with the other slams.

4) Have the Masters Cup for the top 10 instead of the top 8 players.

Pretty simple, instead of two groups of 4, two groups of 5, still the same format, the top 2 from each group go through to the semi finals.

5) Have the final of Women's slams best of 5 sets.

With all the talk of equality and equal pay, why not have the women step up to the plate and have best of 5 sets, I would not expect it for the earlier rounds, but for the final could be a step in the right direction.

Any suggestions/additions?

Great post! They should hire you!

 

[TheTruth]

#1 I would like the draws to be 100% computer generated, no special seeding and ect

#2 No night events

#3 no going from out door to indoor in same tournament

#4 no special treatment for higher ranked players getting to play in better courst with more advantages ie shade, less wind, ect

Definitely #1 and #4, but night matches are electric! They allow us poor working slobs to attend!

 

[fastdunn]

Green clay at Wimbledon? What tournament have you been watching?

You didn't know ? It's not grass. It's actually green clay !

 

[Camilio Pascual]

1) Change the Masters Series
I would have the following Masters Series events.
Shanghai (before Australian Open)
Indian Wells
Miami
Monte-Carlo
Rome
Queens
Toronto (not Montreal)
Madrid
Paris
Any suggestions/additions?

I would look very hard into the economics of having an event in South America, possibly alternating in some fashion between Argentina and Chile. Look at how many high ranking male players are from S.A. If the economics don't make sense, then I'd fuggedaboudit.

 

[OrangeOne]

Green clay at Wimbledon? What tournament have you been watching?

A tournament that allows a committed clay-courter to the final....

(Nice work fastdunn )

 

[kingdaddy41788]

true. But the other players allowed him there too (pretty embarassing)

 

[Ronny]

women's pay back to the way they were b4 unless they can play 5 setters at grand slams and master series(if the wta even has it)

 

[fastdunn]

true. But the other players allowed him there too (pretty embarassing)

I don't think it's purely luck. I know the green clay is still grass and
it has grass specific irregular bounces and stuff.
But we had same finalists at FO and Wimbledon.
People actually predicted it because Wimbledon got so slow...

 

[Scorch]

-in slams best of 3 sets up until the fourth round and beyond at slams, Miami and end of year champs (no tie breaker in the final set, ever). This will shorten the initial stages of the slams and perhaps encourange more top singles players to play doubles.

-Women play best of five in finals of slams (I am waivering on this one!)

-no best of fives outside of slams.

-no coaches to step foot on the court. Ever. Singles tennis is about surviving by yourself. If you cheat, you cheat, it adds to the drama.

-If the ball hits the net on serve, play on.

-6 stage season: rebound ace (Aus Open Main Event), South USA Hardcourt or fast green clay (Miami Main Event), Red European Clay (French Open Main Event), Grass (Wimbeldon Main Event), North American Hardcourt (US Open Main Event), World Indoors (Main event location periodically changed).

-At least one masters/top tier tour event before a slam (but never in the week immediately before). I like the idea of Shanghai for the rebound ace. Halle should be a masters as Queens is in London which already has Wimbledon.

-Extend grass court season by at least 2 weeks. This will improve players knowledge of how to play on grass and increase the quality of the tennis and also let players rest after the french.

-Make indoor end of year champs a mixed event

-At least one tour event that is mixed prior to the slams (and prior to Miami and the end of year indoors. If the size of the draws has to be reduced to accommodate this then so be it.

-Top players have to play all slams, Miami and end of year (if eligable) and at least one top tier tour event prior to slam.

-Increase the size of the off season.

-Review bathroom break and injury timeout rules to reduce their misuse.

 

[Wuornos]

1. I'd make everyone play with wooden rackets.

2. Play let points.

3. Only one serve.

4. No advantage rule.

5. And two balls in play at once to reduce the resting between points !

Lol

 

[coloskier]

Green clay at Wimbledon? What tournament have you been watching?

If you had actually played at Wimbledon before and after they slowed down the courts (which I have), you would know what he is talking about. Before they changed the courts, you rarely had a ball bounce above your knees, and you would NEVER get a big jump/bite from your heavy topspin because it would skid 6 inches before it came up to you. People who are just now coming into the game have absolutely no idea what Wimbledon (or Forest Hills/US Open and AO for that matter) was like with the old grass. You never had time to wind up to hit a big forehand. You either blocked it or sliced it back (see John McEnroe), unless you got a lucky bounce and it came at you at waist level. You'd never get a bounce above your shoulders.