Controversial Poll -- To change tennis?

[MonkeyBoy]

I think GSs should stay best of five all down the line. Also I like no tiebreaks in the fifth.

Maybe reduce the amount of lesser tournaments throughout the year to protect the health of players. Say, lets have 7 masters instead of 9.

 

[TimeSpiral]

The tennis enthusiast community is not disconnected with the trouble tennis is facing in the USA. Tennis is doing just fine. This is a global sport and using Nielsen ratings is an extremely poor way to gauge how it is doing overall.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-23225146

With a peak audience of 17.3 million, Murray's Wimbledon victory was the most watched Wimbledon final in over 20 years. His SF against Janowicz had 13.2 million viewers.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-01-30/aus-open-final-wins-ratings-battle/3800050

Again, strong Aussie viewership for the 2012 Australian Open final. Eurosport also had an enormous peak audience.

And these are just 2 countries. I don't have statistics for every country, but its not hard to see that tennis is becoming a lot more popular in Asia.

If Tennis was facing trouble in the real world, you wouldn't have Barclays, Emirates, and Mercedes Benz sponsoring the hell out of it. I will start worrying about Tennis as a sport when top tennis players can't find sponsors or are getting 20,000 bucks for winning a grand slam.

Thanks for this perspective. Great points that you raise.

Agree with this.

Americans always seem to think they are the centre of the universe.

Well, I'm American and I think you are generalizing a bit too much.

However, I can see why you would say that since the suggestion that we should impose such huge changes on tennis in order to improve US tennis ratings is pretty messed up.

I believe I mentioned in the OP that I'm influenced by a US perspective. That's not forthcoming enough?

Sid showed some peak Wimbledon numbers--not surprising, given the circumstances--and I appreciated that. I would be very curious if some of the international posters could look at viewership trends in their areas.

And guys, I don't think there is anything messed up about floating suggestions and trying to open a conversation. We're just talking here, you know?

I think GSs should stay best of five all down the line. Also I like no tiebreaks in the fifth.

Maybe reduce the amount of lesser tournaments throughout the year to protect the health of players. Say, lets have 7 masters instead of 9.

The health and longevity of our tennis masters was a major point raised in the OP and it has been--almost--completely ignored in the responses.

 

[Sid_Vicious]

Yes, I believe that is the big issue. None of the players complain about ad scoring or best of 5 format, they always complain about the length of the season. However, It seems a bit hypocritical when they complain about not having a vacation from tennis as most of them are busy playing lucrative exhibition matches the minute they have a chance to rest up .

 

[TimeSpiral]

Yes, I believe that is the big issue. None of the players complain about ad scoring or best of 5 format, they always complain about the length of the season. However, It seems a bit hypocritical when they complain about not having a vacation from tennis as most of them are busy playing lucrative exhibition matches the minute they have a chance to rest up .

For some reason, the idea of less tennis tournaments seems counter-intuitive to increasing viewership and interest in the sport.

In the US--and probably everywhere--characters (tennis stars) drive ratings. Developing and then retaining stars for as long as possible is probably a good idea.

 

[nytennis-74]

How about set limits for pro racquets so that the serve does not end up "ruling" the game?