People complain that they don't show enough doubles on TV but there showing tons of the Masters Cup doubles on the Tennis Channel and I find it too boring to watch. Unfamiliar players, points that last one or two shots, empty stadium... ATP doubles at its best is boring. WTA doubles is much more interesting to watch. The ATP is changing the doubles format to 5 game sets and less money which will hurt doubles even more. Something needs to be done to get more singles players to play doubles.
Masters Cup doubles... boring
- Thread starter treo
- Start date
treo said:
Hah, I wish I had the tennis channel so that I could watch some of this "boring" doubles...
Like who? Besides Stephen Huss and Wesley Moodie, I agree those players came out of nowhere. But the rest of the teams are top-notch doubles guys that have been around forever - the only reason they're "unknown" is because doubles isn't shown on TV! These are the best doubles teams in the world and they've all been around for years.
Quick points - of course, I wouldn't expect many rallies to last longer than 4 strokes or so. It's that much more exciting - you skip straight to the good shots without waiting in endless rallies! And of course, fewer unforced errors, since there are almost no neutral rallies.
Empty stadium - well, I can't say about that, since I don't have TTC and thus don't see this particular doubles. Though I doubt I'd notice it even if I did see it on TV - I watch the players and not the crowd...
Well, to each his own. The most exciting tennis matches I've ever seen were doubles matches.
Again, to each his own... I find that in the WTA, even the doubles players try to win with groundstrokes and not volleys, a lot of the time. Great volleyers are the exception rather than the rule, even in doubles - that makes it that much less exciting to watch, for me...
Yeah, it's a shame that the top singles players don't play doubles. Some of them could even be good doubles players - Federer would certainly have a shot at the double-#1, though players like Agassi or Safin or Nadal probably wouldn't be near the top of the doubles rankings even if they played full schedules.
I personally don't mind doubles being played by doubles players - the doubles specialists are better at doubles than the singles players, and vice versa...
...but hey, I certainly wouldn't mind more singles players attracted to doubles, if it would boost the chances of doubles being shown on TV.
I don't think there's much of a chance of too many singles players doing that though - the game is so grueling on the body anyway, I doubt too many of the top guys will risk injury by playing doubles day in day out.
IMO, the changes that they're making will push out of the doubles game the players that can actually play good doubles - doubles specialists - and replace them with players that treat doubles as second fiddle to their singles game, and thus will overall decrease the quality of the tennis...
...and of course, the new shortened scoring is just messed up...
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