ATP announces committee to look at ways to improve competition

http://www.sacbee.com/2012/08/24/4754817/krajicek-part-of-new-atp-competition.htm

Will be very interesting to see what kind of things change. There has been a lot of talk amongst commentators on all channels about the slowing down of conditions, and with high profile injuries caused by wear and tear, I would hazard a guess that this might be one area that is discussed, as well as the amount of tournaments the top guys are contracted to play.

Hope very much we are definitely not going to see the two year ranking system mooted again - rumours were that Kraijcek was in favour of at one time.

God it's dead on here - is everyone on holiday, or just moonlighting

I hope they:
-Make AO on clay (natural surface)
-Put IW and Miami on clay
-Then have a Grass Masters 1000 before Wimbledon
-Current Schedule upto USO
-After the USO rather than going into a indoor HC season, we could go into a indoor/outdoor grass season- with the 2 usual Masters 1000 on grass

Thus there would be more tennis on clay and grass, which are natural surfaces which mean less injury to players.
My plan would also mean there would be 5 Masters on Clay, 3 on Grass, and 2 on HC.

So, who's in favour?

Interesting news TP and this is good to see. Ranking systems aside I think we would get better quality tennis if they played slightly less in general...they used to have best of 14 ranking system a few years back before it now became Bo18. Also they used to have to play only 6 out of 9 Masters, now it's 8 plus MC optional.
So more tennis in an era of slower conditions and more HCs, better racquet tech, etc....something has to give and hopefully it will. Otherwise the top plays go tired from one event to the next and we lose out on high quality matches.

We need restrictions on racquet tech, more speed variance, fewer HCs, better spacing in calendar, more wild cards for <21's to get them into tour proper, but the dearth of new talent <=19 in top100 really needs to be discussed as future of the game isn't looking good right now...the domination of Top4 hasn't been good for game IMO but lack of young talent isn't their fault, it's slow conditions taking away the benefits/advantages that youth should bring to a court, e.g. Explosive movement. This is why we need faster courts for more than one reason or else über-fit 30 yo's will still dominate the game by dint of their legs/lungs getting them to slower moving balls, not innate skill per se.

Presume it's the old pre-slam lull and holiday season TP.
Or maybe Rafa not being around isn't giving people much to talk about?
We do need a few more thread posters though

Let's hope they don't come up with 2-year rankings. Golf has them and it was ridiculous to see Tiger Woods still so highly ranked when he hadn't played for ages.
At least the extra week between the French and Wimbledon from 2015 could lead to changes. Certainly a 500-point grass tourney before SW19 would be good. Or why not make it a Masters ?

Devoted Nadal fan (IMBL) wants clay everywhere. Big surprise.

You have as much chance of Australia - which has a grass heritage - of going to clay as of RG going to grass. Thank God.

Lydians right, no need to repeat the proposas but they're right. Not sure IMBL will agree. Reducing tournaments without speeding up conditions will have the opposite effect and reduce competition.

I'd be baffled how a two year ranking would aid competition. Quite the reverse.

The one thing I'd like to see is Queen's upgraded to a Masters event. It has the best grass courts in the world I hear. Perhaps schedule it the week after Halle though so they don't clash. I know players have agreements to attend either Halle or Queen's.

I also don't want to see more clay courts. There's too many as it is IMO, I really hate court tennis.

I hope they stop allowing players to call trainers on.

bogbrush wrote:Devoted Nadal fan (IMBL) wants clay everywhere. Big surprise.

I also stood for a big increase in the number of grass Masters 1000 too

No, seriously, this has nothing to do with Nadal playing better on clay, or worse on hard courts.
I'm genuinely concerned about the health and well-being of the ATP tour in general- and considering grass and clay are natural surfaces which do not cause so much injury, I think my plan is a better option moving forward.

Yeah, big increase of one.

Clay in Australia kind of gives you away I'm afraid. If you wanted natural surfaces you'd have called for Grass.

In any case there is no widespread injury problem. Only Nadal, and that's congenital. There's a boredom problem, which slower courts aren't going to fix.

- more variety in the surfaces (doesn't mean speeding up uniformly)
- move the AO date
- push wimbledon back allowing for a proper grass court season (bring in a grass court masters and knock out Cinci)

bogbrush wrote:Yeah, big increase of one.

I'm sorry, what do you mean?
I said there should be a grass Masters before Wimbledon, and post USO spell should also be grass (so the 2 Masters 1000 there- Paris and Shanghai). That makes 3 altogether, not one
I even specify in the final line of my post that it would mean 3 Grass Masters 1000, clearly you have only read the first two lines of my post. In any-case, don't allege false things in future

bogbrush wrote: Australia kind of gives you away I'm afraid. If you wanted natural surfaces you'd have called for Grass.

Why is this? Clay and grass are both natural surfaces, no?
And don't give me 'heritage' lol; if AO could abandon grass for HC they can abandon HC for clay.

Here is the ATP version - http://www.atpworldtour.com/News/Tennis/2012/08/Features/ATP-Announces-Formation-Of-Competition-Committee.aspx

Thanks TP for the article.

Well certainly I'd have no more clay tournaments added and would like to see more quicker paced surfaces added to increase the element of variety. Also a Master tournament on grass really should be added. It is the only surface without such a tournament on it which is weird considering how many there are on clay and hard court.

Well, I would love to see a Masters 1000 before both the Australian Open and Wimbledon, but I doubt that would happen.

Insread, I would make Sydney and Queens ATP 500's and have them as both ATP and WTA Tour events (think Sydney is on the WTA Tour). Wimbledon is already moving in 2015, I would movethe Australian Open back a week.

Madrid would not be a Masters 1000, i would make it a 500 event but keep it combined with the Women's event.

No Masters 1000's would be back to back and ALL finals would all be best of 5 sets (same for World Tour Finals).

Top players would get first round byes in ATP 250's and ATP 500 events (would like to see this nixed for Masters 1000's but can understand why it isn't).

Restructure of the calendar so that ALL indoor events take place at the end of the year and clay events take place in the clay court season (I think all grass events are together).

Some tournaments would agree to be played every other year so as to allow the season to finish completely (including Davis Cup final) by the end of October. Would also have the Rogers Cup at either Toronto or Montreal, with the other venue being a 500 event, combined with the womens.

Court speeds: start of the year slow, Australian Open, Dubai, Indian Wells, Miami and all clay court events. Then speeds up for grass (make the grass speed in between the 90's and today). The US Open hard court series is fairly quick, same for indoor season (on CARPET). WTF played on a medium pace Carpet court.

Finally, get rid of final set tie-breaker at US Open!

If any of you have facebook, you can post your comments on the ATP link that LF posted.

Lydian - you really should do so!

Good idea TP, I'll copy/paste over there on ATP as well as a similar thread we discussed where lack of young talent in top100 was brought up and some similar points made.