Poor tournament scheduling??

[Aussie Darcy]

So judging this of the Citi Open this week. In my opinion the scheduling of this tournament is terrible. Or is it cause we are in the American part of the season?
Play started Tuesday Australia time/ Monday America time. All seeded players had a bye to the 2nd round which meant some players didn't play there first match (in the 2nd round) til today. Today is Thurday in Australia and Wednesday in america. Let's choose Feliciano Lopez as an example, 7th seed, bye to the 2nd round. He didn't play til today. First match on wednesday. This is only a one week tournament. If he wins the title he will have to play wednesday, thursday against Groth, friday against Nishi or Mayer, saturday in the semi finals and then sunday in the finals.
Say he wins the title, he then has to head to the rogers cup (Masters 1000, big points on offer). Where despite being world number 20, he will be unseeded. He could therefore potentially play on the monday or best case Tuesday. Then what? So he plays monday 1R, tuesday 2R, Wednesday 3R, Thursday QF, Friday SF and a day break and the final sunday??
Then he heads to the Western and Southern Open (another masters 1000, wouldnt want to miss that) and could do this all over again being unseeded and having to play everyday to reach the final.

We expect these players to do this??
Now i'm fairly certain that in Brisbane this year, players starting playing main draw on the Sunday which I think is so much better for players, and that was an ATP250. Why can't they get their stuff together? I feel bad for these players, no wonder why some tank it away in early rounds. I'd much rather the Masters then ATP500..

 

[tennisaddict]

The problem is they just have 1 show court,2 big outer courts and 3 other smaller courts. They made a mistake combining this as a mens and womens event. They play at least 1 womens match on the show court.

Other tournaments don't have the issue. Problem gets accentuated when there is rain. Matches cannot start earlier than 2:00 because of 90 degree heat.

 

[Gary Duane]

I think this tournament is horrible due to insane scheduling. There were hardly any people watching the last match tonight. This is not good for tennis. It looks pathetic to see players trying to finish matches so far after midnight.

 

[buckner86]

I think this tournament is horrible due to insane scheduling. There were hardly any people watching the last match tonight. This is not good for tennis. It looks pathetic to see players trying to finish matches so far after midnight.

Agree 100%.

 

[Down_the_line]

It is a weird schedule for this tournament. I don't remember it being like this last year though. I wonder if there's some specific reason for it this year. Or it was like this in years past and I'm not recalling....

 

[Gary Duane]

It is a weird schedule for this tournament. I don't remember it being like this last year though. I wonder if there's some specific reason for it this year. Or it was like this in years past and I'm not recalling....

I am thinking the same thing.

 

[West Coast Ace]

^^^^ I wonder if this is for TV.

I know many players hate the 11AM starts. But I don't think they mind playing every day (2 out of 3 only of course). And the winner of a tournament outside of the top seeds is always at a disadvantage the next week. Feli will still be happy if he wins the title, then gets smoked 1st rd. in MTL. Having said that, I'm sure they'll move him to Tues if he requests - and he will be playing against someone he should beat.

Maybe it's an experiment. Would be nice if the announcers would say something.

I'm not as grumpy as the OP; but I don't like anything that makes it difficult to get a day's play in. And starting this late definitely risks that.

 

[tennisaddict]

DC always starts the matches at 2:00. The issue is the combined tournament with WTA since 2013. The 2:00 PM match is inevitably womens. Mens starts at 4:00, followed by 5:30, 7:30 and the last one following that. If the evening matches stretch beyond 2 hrs or if there is rain, then the schedule is screwed.

It can get incredibly hot at noon, hence the late start.

 

[tacou]

I know many players hate the 11AM starts. But I don't think they mind playing every day (2 out of 3 only of course). And the winner of a tournament outside of the top seeds is always at a disadvantage the next week. Feli will still be happy if he wins the title, then gets smoked 1st rd. in MTL. Having said that, I'm sure they'll move him to Tues if he requests - and he will be playing against someone he should beat.

Yeah this. Playing 5 days in a row 2/3 to win a tournament is not a big deal. To win a tournament, you have to play more matches. You then have to deal with a quick turn around.

The 2PM start, on the other hand, is just stupid.

 

[Roddick85]

The ATP schedule is just plain terrible. They squeezed in way too many tournaments as an attempt to make more $$. Typical case of quantity over quality. I mean when you think about it, making a decent schedule doesn't require a PHD, anyone can come up with something better than this, yet year after year, all we hear is how bad the schedule is. How can you have Cincinnati start the same day Montreal ends. Someone who goes deep in Montreal will have what, 2-3 days max to travel & recover? And then people are surprised when there's an upset in the early rounds ?

ATP should just get they're **** together. Your 4 most important tournaments are the slams, schedule that first, then all your MS-1000 with 1 week between them.

 

[NaBUru38]

the winner of a tournament outside of the top seeds is always at a disadvantage the next week

How about performance byes?

For example, the winner of an ATP 500 tournament (like Washington) should get a bye to second round in the next week's tournament (like Cincinnati).

 

[Down_the_line]

How about performance byes?

For example, the winner of an ATP 500 tournament (like Washington) should get a bye to second round in the next week's tournament (like Cincinnati).

That's actually a really good idea.

 

[CDNguy87]

That's actually a really good idea.

Only problem is they do the draws for the next week's tournament usually on the Friday/Saturday of the previous week, while the winner of the previous week's tournament obviously won't be known until Sunday. But if they can find someway around that it's a good suggestion. It's worth noting though that the Top 8 seeds already get first round byes at M1000 events, so they wouldn't be affected by this either way.

 

[tacou]

That's actually a really good idea.

And then you tell one of the players already at the tournament who qualified or who has a good enough ranking to be in the main draw, sorry you can't play because some other guy won $80K last week?

 

[Aussie Darcy]

And then you tell one of the players already at the tournament who qualified or who has a good enough ranking to be in the main draw, sorry you can't play because some other guy won $80K last week?

They can organise the draw prior to factor in 4 spots for the semi-finalists of a tournament.
This is just one example I remember.
The 2014 WTA China Open (Premier Mandatory) gave the 4 semi-finalists of the Wuhan Open (Premier 5) a bye to the 2nd round. These were; Bouchard, Kvitova, Svitolina and Wozniacki. Take a look at how they did the draw here
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_China_Open_–_Women's_Singles

If it's predetermined, noone will lose their spot.

 

[NaBUru38]

And then you tell one of the players already at the tournament who qualified or who has a good enough ranking to be in the main draw, sorry you can't play because some other guy won $80K last week?

ATP 500 winners earn 300k euros.

The second round spot for the previous week's player is fixed, so nobody gets kicked out late.