Tiafoe: fans should be able to come & go & move around & speak during matches. let's start changing things to bring younger fans to the game”

RaulRamirez said:
I've debated (mostly internally) if tennis players really require stillness and silence during points or it's just become ingrained in its culture to play that way.
Click to expand...

Individual sports demand more quiet.

Crowds go silent when bowlers and billiard players take their shot as well.

I think we should have a sit-down at 1-0 to let the fans get back in.
 
RaulRamirez said:
Here's something I've been thinking of re: the noise (as I still debate whether tennis really requires this much quiet or this is more its ingrained culture).

Generally at (for example) a baseball game, there's all kinds of movement and yelling -- unless the crowd is dead. But sometimes in a small, relatively dead crowd, you hear a few isolated leather-lunged voices, which can be more distracting than a loud buzz of thousands shouting. When there's noise during a tennis match, that's what you'll get -- those few, loud (drunken?) voices that are quite distracting.
Click to expand...
And that's why I don't blame tennis players from missing a shot when some jerk randomly yells out in the middle of a point unexpectedly and they shank it.

I'm just saying we don't need to coddle them with a dead quiet environment as a baseline.
 
tennis3 said:
Try it yourself. Have a dozen or so people make a bunch of noise and do what they can to distract you while you play a buddy in the park.

I think it would be hard to play.
Click to expand...
Baseball players, football players, basketball players, etc, seem to manage just fine. Why is it the tennis players that get to be snowflakes and demand a completely silent crowd? Are you telling me it's harder to hit a tennis ball with a large racquet than it is to hit a 95mph baseball with the precise edge of a small round stick?
 
Rosstour said:
Individual sports demand more quiet.

Crowds go silent when bowlers and billiard players take their shot as well.

I think we should have a sit-down at 1-0 to let the fans get back in.
Click to expand...
So when a batter is at the plate trying to gauge a 95mph fastball or a vicious curveball, there are other people helping him hit the ball? What about when the pitcher is throwing the pitch? He has to get a tiny ball inside a tiny box. That's a lot harder than having a free swing at a tennis ball and landing it in a much larger box than a baseball strike zone.

Sorry, tennis players are a bunch of whiny snowflakes when it comes to crowd noise.
 
MiamiWeekendWarrior said:
So when a batter is at the plate trying to gauge a 95mph fastball or a vicious curveball, there are other people helping him hit the ball? What about when the pitcher is throwing the pitch? He has to get a tiny ball inside a tiny box. That's a lot harder than having a free swing at a tennis ball and landing it in a much larger box than a baseball strike zone.

Sorry, tennis players are a bunch of whiny snowflakes when it comes to crowd noise.
Click to expand...

Team sports are different. Baseball is a team sport. It's not hard to understand the distinction
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ann
Very unappealing suggestions.

I'm of the younger generation, and I still appreciate a tennis arena as something of a last bastion of silence in a noise-polluted world --- not because the players need it, but because it encourages unfettered attention on something beautiful. No-one that watched the 2001 Wimbledon final could claim that silence during points is any impediment to an electric atmosphere in other moments. And talking during points? The only matches one hears that in are those in tournaments with endless VIP boxes, such as at the Madrid Open. The atmosphere is generally one of half-attention and non-commitment --- bloated distraction rather than lean and focused youth.

Tiafoe gets young people wrong. They are precisely the generation learning to temper the attention-raiding excesses of early tech culture --- the avant garde is the youth-driven silent airports of the Netherlands and the psychedelic churchery of a hushed arena, where thousands are present but you could hear a pin drop.

Tennis was with the curve, then behind it, but now it's ahead of it.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Ann
tennisfan2166 said:
I played a match today with two guys talking on the side of the court the whole match. It wasn't a big deal.
Click to expand...
YEAH BUT YOU'RE NOT A PRO!

That was my point of bringing up Futures/Challengers - people talking, walking in the line of vision constantly, even dogs being walked lol, busy road noise right next to the court.
Those are pro players (some right on the bubble of the main show) and they deal with it just fine, it just takes a little focus.

Not advocating for yelling during points or being disruptive during matches but a little background noise and people moving around a bit shouldn't be the end of the world for these guys.

In the IW final fans had to wait (miss) over 10 minutes to get to their (very expensive) seats after taking a bathroom break in between sets because they are not allowed to take their seats until after 3 games are played - completely ridiculous rule.
 
Rosstour said:
Team sports are different. Baseball is a team sport. It's not hard to understand the distinction
Click to expand...
So crowd noise should be OK in doubles matches, right?

Also, how does the "team" aspect of baseball make it any easier for an individual pitcher to be able to throw a small ball into a tiny strike zone and for an individual batter to hit said tiny and very fast-moving ball with a relatively tiny stick?
 
Golf is probably the only sport that needs silence during play.

Tennis purists acting like hitting a fuzzy hollow ball is the most difficult thing in the world requiring silence disqualifies any tennis player from being at the top of a "greatest athletic achievement in the world" type lists.

"But, 1.3 Billion viewers!!!!"
 
Tiafoe isn't the first one to say this. I don't think it needs to be absolutely silent, but I wouldn't want it so that people were shouting out during first serves or anything. Do we really think formally being discouraged from talking and walking around during play (I say "formally" because in practice it happens plenty) is what's holding back a youth fan revolution? I don't.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ann
Nadal - GOAT said:
Well the high ticket prices are even keeping middle aged people like me out ;)

Tennis is just too expensive to watch live for the average middle-class and I don't see that changing.
Click to expand...
I have talked about this before. If a match is half way done and the box seats are empty they should give it to the people who have the next level ticket. With atleast one seat given to the people in the nosebleed section. Will improve things a lot. A lot more people will get into the stadium when they know they can get lucky.
 
Tennfan123 said:
Every single live match I’ve been to apart from in Germany has had fans yabbering away the whole time.
Click to expand...
"Apart from in Germany" :)

It's funny because it's true.

That's one of the things about going to IW. You'll always have a guy next to you that wants to dissect the Pro's games and let you know what they should be doing. I never know if I should engage them and let them pass on all their wisdom to me, or if I should tell them they need to be a bit more quiet (because everyone is glaring at us).
 
I forget which tournament a while back but there was some light glinting off something about a mile away which caused Rafa great distress and the chair ump delayed play so NASA could try and rotate the earth so the sunlight glinting off some dude's bald dome in the upper deck didn't disrupt Rafa's 5 minute pre-serve ritual.

The good tennis.
 
tennis3 said:
"Apart from in Germany" :)

It's funny because it's true.

That's one of the things about going to IW. You'll always have a guy next to you that wants to dissect the Pro's games and let you know what they should be doing. I never know if I should engage them and let them pass on all their wisdom to me, or if I should tell them they need to be a bit more quiet (because everyone is glaring at us).
Click to expand...
The ultimate extroverts lol. Can be a bit annoying when they don't read your not replying as your not being interested in listening to them. But then I am that talkative, won't-stop-commenting person myself when I'm at least with one friend, so can't really judge too hard.
 
I disagree with Frances. I like it that tennis audiences are different from other sports. The quiet during points helps the players play better.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ann
Dumb idea by a dumb player, not surprised at all. Stick to basketball if you want all that annoying unnecessary constant noise.
 
I don’t really see how of all of the things like ticket prices, lack of really marketable stars and ATGs, and players like Khachanov and Ruud, it’s moving around between points that’s the problem atm. At IW and the US Open, no one in the crowd gives a **** about that rule anyway.
 
Also if we want it to be more exciting or whatever, just make a stupid version of the sport where you get double points for hitting winners, speed up Miami or another HC event on the main tour, and do more to encourage Fed, Dre etc to make appearances a couple of times a year. Fed should be playing exhos against Alcaraz like he did against PETE in the mid 00s
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ann
I remember Agassi of all people, aka Mr Rebel Tennis and ‘that oughta wake up the country club’, complaining about music being played during changeovers at New Haven in 1994. He said that it ‘scarred the game’ and threatened to boycott any other tournaments that followed suit.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Enceladus
  • Poll Poll
Tiafoe suggests bringing basketball culture to tennis
Replies
8
Views
693
Tennfan123
T
Back
Top