Super-TB at 6:6 in 5th set robbed fans of another drama in RG 2025 final

Enceladus

Enceladus

Legend
The RG 2025 final was one of the best and most dramatic matches in recent memory, an epic battle that became the second longest GS final in history.

However, the Super-TB at 6:6 in the 5th set spoiled this drama. It could have been an even bigger battle if the Super-TB had not been set at all in the final or had been set at 12:12. The 5th set could have ended at 9:7 or 12:10, which would have been even more electrifying and winner would have to put in more effort to win the 5th set, which would make it more deserved. This final could have surpassed the duration of the AO 2012 final, which the scoring system prevented. That's wrong for me.

Many legendary tennis matches have a 5th set ending above 6:6, such as Borg-McEnroe W 1980 (8:6), Nadal-Federer W 2008 (9:7), Nadal-Djokovic RG 2013 (9:7), Djokovic-Nadal W 2018 (10:8), Safin-Federer AO 2005 (9:7) and others. If nothing changes, we won't see sets like this anymore, which is a shame IMO.
 
Every slam should have a normal tie-break at 12-12 tbh. Apart from the French Open which doesn't have a history of long-ass matches, and it's easier to break serve on clay anyway.
 
I agree that a tiebreak at 6-6 kills the epic nature of the contest. 12-12 is too long though. That's an entire additional set.

9-9 would be the ideal compromise. Gives the last set a chance for an epic conclusion without dragging out too long. All of the games listed above would have fitted into this criteria.
 
It's a really bad change. I can see it being an argument before the final considering how physical the sport has gotten and matches are getting longer and longer but the title match? No. It's not like the players have another match in 2 days. Everything before the final can be TB in the 5th but not the final. There is nothing to preserve anymore, just two players fighting to death.
 
bigbadboaz said:
I'm surprised at the unanimity against this. Match was hella long as it was with the other sets nearing the maximum as well. For me, with Carlos topping off his comeback by absolutely dominating the critical breaker, really couldn't have been any better.
Click to expand...
Year he definitely made it more palatable, it felt like I was watching a marathon where the home favourite was suddenly breaks free of the pack and does a sprint finish to the line.

I suspect other finals wouldn't end so excitingly in this way - one guy just bombing serves and the other missing one point and then imploding.
 
[09/06, 3:47 pm] Adil Khan: What does super tb mean in tennis

[09/06, 3:47 pm] Meta AI: In tennis, "Super Tiebreak" (also known as a "Champions Tiebreak" or "10-point Tiebreak") is a way to decide a set or match when the score is tied at a specific point, often 6-6 in a set.

*How it works:*

- *First to 10 points*: Players compete to reach 10 points, with a 2-point advantage (e.g., 10-8, 11-9, etc.).
- *Used in lieu of a full set*: Instead of playing another set, the Super Tiebreak decides the winner.

The Super Tiebreak is often used in:

- *Doubles matches*: To decide a match when the sets are split.
- *Some tournaments*: As a way to shorten matches or decide sets.

The Super Tiebreak adds excitement and unpredictability to tennis matches!
 
bigbadboaz said:
I'm surprised at the unanimity against this. Match was hella long as it was with the other sets nearing the maximum as well. For me, with Carlos topping off his comeback by absolutely dominating the critical breaker, really couldn't have been any better.
Click to expand...
The final was long, but it could have been even longer, it could have been an even bigger fight, and the final could have set a record for the longest GS final. This is because of a rule that the Grand Slam governing bodies has set from the table. In short, a "wall-to-wall" approach, where one extreme is responded to with another extreme, I don't like.
 
Spencer Gore said:
Having a tie break at 6-6 in the final set is a bit like having a penalty shoot out in football (soccer for our American cousins) after 90 minutes. Just feels wrong.
Click to expand...
Worst analogy ever. Shoot outs in soccer don't resemble anything that actually happens in a game, that's why they suck.

A TB in tennis is exactly what happens in a tennis match, just with slightly different format.

I'm fine with 5th set TB's, as someone said above Sinner would probably have physically collapsed pretty soon - I would rather have the match resolved with quality over quantity. Carlos and Jannik already surpassed any sort of physical fitness test, they were incredibly fit.
 
Enceladus said:
The RG 2025 final was one of the best and most dramatic matches in recent memory, an epic battle that became the second longest GS final in history.

However, the Super-TB at 6:6 in the 5th set spoiled this drama. It could have been an even bigger battle if the Super-TB had not been set at all in the final or had been set at 12:12. The 5th set could have ended at 9:7 or 12:10, which would have been even more electrifying and winner would have to put in more effort to win the 5th set, which would make it more deserved. This final could have surpassed the duration of the AO 2012 final, which the scoring system prevented. That's wrong for me.

Many legendary tennis matches have a 5th set ending above 6:6, such as Borg-McEnroe W 1980 (8:6), Nadal-Federer W 2008 (9:7), Nadal-Djokovic RG 2013 (9:7), Djokovic-Nadal W 2018 (10:8), Safin-Federer AO 2005 (9:7) and others. If nothing changes, we won't see sets like this anymore, which is a shame IMO.
Click to expand...
Yeah, it felt somewhat anticlimactic.
Unfortunately, that's the way it is.
:confused:
 
Last edited:
norcal said:
Worst analogy ever. Shoot outs in soccer don't resemble anything that actually happens in a game, that's why they suck.

A TB in tennis is exactly what happens in a tennis match, just with slightly different format.

I'm fine with 5th set TB's, as someone said above Sinner would probably have physically collapsed pretty soon - I would rather have the match resolved with quality over quantity. Carlos and Jannik already surpassed any sort of physical fitness test, they were incredibly fit.
Click to expand...
IMO, the super breaker at 6-all in the fifth is the best solution. Forcing the match to continue until one player is ahead by two games invites an otherwise epic match (like yesterday's) to potentially end in a death march of cramping, fatigue and lousy tennis.
 
The current rule is fair enough, but I did prefer the 2018 and before rule. The final yesterday lasted 5 hours and 29 minutes, which is the longest French Open final of all time, and the second longest major final of all time (only behind the 2012 Australian Open final between Djokovic and Nadal, which lasted 5 hours and 53 minutes). Who knows how much longer it would have gone on for yesterday if there had been no tiebreak in the fifth set.

The TV, media and business people clearly don't like the unpredictability in terms of time that a traditional fifth set has, and John Isner was basically their worst nightmare. Isner did have one of his marathon matches at the 2012 French Open, when Mathieu beat Isner 6-7, 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 18-16, in 5 hours and 41 minutes.

I do prefer the champions tiebreak in the fifth set compared to an ordinary tiebreak. It's like a bit of extra cover to make sure that the better player wins. Ordinary tiebreaks have luck playing a bigger role than champions tiebreaks.
 
I think 9-7 is a beautiful score, so I could get behind doing it at 8-8, but anything more than that is unnecessary. The more tired guys get, the more the quality goes down. Isner and Mahut was a joke.
 
Enceladus said:
The RG 2025 final was one of the best and most dramatic matches in recent memory, an epic battle that became the second longest GS final in history.

However, the Super-TB at 6:6 in the 5th set spoiled this drama. It could have been an even bigger battle if the Super-TB had not been set at all in the final or had been set at 12:12. The 5th set could have ended at 9:7 or 12:10, which would have been even more electrifying and winner would have to put in more effort to win the 5th set, which would make it more deserved. This final could have surpassed the duration of the AO 2012 final, which the scoring system prevented. That's wrong for me.

Many legendary tennis matches have a 5th set ending above 6:6, such as Borg-McEnroe W 1980 (8:6), Nadal-Federer W 2008 (9:7), Nadal-Djokovic RG 2013 (9:7), Djokovic-Nadal W 2018 (10:8), Safin-Federer AO 2005 (9:7) and others. If nothing changes, we won't see sets like this anymore, which is a shame IMO.
Click to expand...
I don’t mind the super TB in the fifth set. Watching 4.5 hours of tennis was enough for me.
 
People who think 12-12 or 18-18 is too long for a slam final are crazy. It would happen once every 10 years at best and it would be incredible drama.
 
norcal said:
Worst analogy ever. Shoot outs in soccer don't resemble anything that actually happens in a game, that's why they suck.

A TB in tennis is exactly what happens in a tennis match, just with slightly different format.

I'm fine with 5th set TB's, as someone said above Sinner would probably have physically collapsed pretty soon - I would rather have the match resolved with quality over quantity. Carlos and Jannik already surpassed any sort of physical fitness test, they were incredibly fit.
Click to expand...
Shoots outs are football's equivalent of a tie break. A way to end the sporting contest that has reached a "stalemate". The point of the analogy is that football doesn't immediately go into the stalemate breaking part of the contest, they allow an extra thirty minutes of the regulation play to try and find a winner. Tennis should do the same. Allow the final set to be extended to try and find a winner THEN go into the procedure to break the stalemate. It would be silly for football to go another 90 minutes, which is why I don't like the 12-12 tiebreak suggestion. A tie break at 9-9 is the best of both worlds, I think.
 
French Open should have been no final tiebreak slam.

AO should have been Super Tiebreak 6 all 5th Set.

SW19 should have been 12 tiebreak.

USO have it is 5th set 6 all tiebreak.

Every slam would have been different.
 
Quaichang said:
I don’t want to see repeat of the 70-68 11 hour Isner Mahut match.
Click to expand...

That would obviously never happen in a final, because homogenization has neutered the effectiveness of serve botting in the later stages of grand slams. But I also said 12-12 or 18-18.
 
kishnabe said:
French Open should have been no final tiebreak slam.

AO should have been Super Tiebreak 6 all 5th Set.

SW19 should have been 12 tiebreak.

USO have it is 5th set 6 all tiebreak.

Every slam would have been different.
Click to expand...
That's how it was 2019-2021. In 2022, they all adopted the Australian Open system.
 
Only have super-tb's from 1R to SF.

Finals of a GS don't need them, it's literally the only time of the tournament where you want the MOST tennis lol
 
Red Rick said:
Every match going to 6-6 in the final becomes a random, interchangeable 7-6, rather than adding a unique scoreline to the game.

John Isner destroyed tennis.
Click to expand...
it's amazing to think of the influence the guy had for a good but nowhere near great career

but we have to be honest and say how much the Nadal-Djokovic Oz final had in the rule change too....of course they handled that by speeding up the courts a bit....so I guess that takes us back to Isner...could you imagine him re-entering tennis in his prime with courts becoming a little quicker and back to no decisive tiebreaks?

I admit I've been fine with the 10 point breaker rule at all majors...until yesterday...I did feel a bit cheated
 
In my opinion is better this way, they are already knackered a 6-6 in the fifth, a super tiebreaker there decides who can play better after a hell of a match, whereas if you keep going serve and return games, it could favour the better server or it might happen that one player just cant hit a ball anymore, if you want a pure endurance test, go watch a marathon, 5 hours and a half is enough to see who can play better tennis after all the tense moments and hard fight, it shouldn be about who collapses physically first and cant move an arm or a leg anymore
 
I've personally always been for tiebreaks in majors except for the final. You wanna win one of the sport's four pinnacles? Better find a way to break serve.
 
If we must absolutely have it for pace of play in the first week, then I see no reason to have it in the second week. Sure no one's gonna care if Joe vs Bob in round 2 ends in a TB so we can get things moving but everyone cares when it's Sinner vs Alcaraz in the french open final. This format robbed this final of a true climax because even at 40-0 CP all it takes is 1 maybe 2 points for it to become super tense again. There was no tension in that TB and as fun as it was to see Carlos on a heater in that TB a match like that should be excruciatingly tense until the ultimate release at the ending. It should never feel like its over before its over. And it was over before it was over.
 
The Guru said:
If we must absolutely have it for pace of play in the first week, then I see no reason to have it in the second week. Sure no one's gonna care if Joe vs Bob in round 2 ends in a TB so we can get things moving but everyone cares when it's Sinner vs Alcaraz in the french open final. This format robbed this final of a true climax because even at 40-0 CP all it takes is 1 maybe 2 points for it to become super tense again. There was no tension in that TB and as fun as it was to see Carlos on a heater in that TB a match like that should be excruciatingly tense until the ultimate release at the ending. It should never feel like its over before its over. And it was over before it was over.
Click to expand...
Man if youre able to win 7 points in a row at that point of the match like alcaraz did.... i think you earned it, it coud seem anticlimatic because of carlos level at the end, super tie break ended 10-2, thats a clear indicator of the levels the players were able to produce at that point, i dont think it would have been a night and day difference
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Terry Tibbs
Tie break in 5th set long overdue
Replies
47
Views
3K
Spencer Gore
Spencer Gore
Dean Winchester
Is Performance in the 5th Set of a Grand Slam a true indicator of Mental Toughness & Durability for an ATG???
Replies
7
Views
716
Hitman
Hitman
marc45
Oz to 5th Set Tiebreeak
Replies
7
Views
557
marc45
marc45
R
All 4 Majors now have 10 point TB in the 5th set...why?
Replies
12
Views
902
Sudacafan
Sudacafan
RaulRamirez
Which of the 4 "slams" has the best rule for 5th set tiebreakers?
2
Replies
75
Views
4K
nolefam_2024
N
Back
Top