I’m a tennis fan and I don’t think tennis needs any big rule changes. I like it just the way it is more than at any other point in the past four decades. I have watched the exhibitions that have been televised recently with different scoring systems and don’t like any of them - just like the WTT rules, no-ad rules, Fast-4 rules all seem gimmicky to me. Other tennis players I know are also not clamoring for any rule changes at my club and usually dislike the no-ad and Fast-4 formats. Some like the 10-point match tiebreaker at the rec level instead of a 3rd set, but no one I know seems to want it at the pro level.
Whenever these discussions happen, I get told that shortening tennis matches and having gimmicky scoring rules will attract non-fans and help to attract a younger audience. I’m yet to see any public surveys or market research showing that younger fans and non-fans will flock to tennis if the rules are changed.
The change I am in favor of on the pro tour is to give more money to lower-ranked players (or those eliminated in earlier rounds of tournaments) and less to the stars (or less prize money for winners of later rounds) so that more players can make a good living from tennis and find it easier to have an entourage of coaches and physical trainers accompanying them to level the playing field against the top stars. I think this will lead to more upsets and the birth of new stars. Tennis results and tournament wins on the ATP tour were not so skewed in favor of just a few players till it became such a physical sport in the last fifteen years along with the fact that the top players have coaches, trainers, therapists, nutritionists, family accompanying them on private jets while lower-ranked players fly on commercial flights with one coach accompanying them at best. The WTA tour is less physically grueling and tournaments are won by more players and there are more up-and-coming stars. The top ATP stars make a lot of money from endorsements anyway and so, prize money should go more to lower-ranked players.