Serena hurt herself again. Venus is on crutches. JJ is sick and tired (literally). Elena has a screwed up foot. Justine can’t step in, she’s still out.
What the hell are we doing here people?!
It’s supposed to be the next biggest event to the slams. The showcase of your greatest players. Now, instead of having trouble attracting fans, you can’t even attract the players. Not to mention, they sometimes get hurt once they get there anyway (Ana, 2008, Dinara, Caro, 2009).
It’s a tricky situation, and no option is easy. I’ve got a bit of a crazy one, it’s not do nothing or move it back to New York, but it might work.
Move it to the beginning of the year.
Huh?
Yeah, you heard me. This can apply for the ATP too. Think about it. It’s the end of the season. Players are exhausted, injured. For the guys, they’re even more exhausted and have to play two Masters tournaments post USO. Poor Nole has to play Davis Cup and in London. There’s a lot of points and money at stake, sure, but how much do players really want to have to battle it out against the toughest opponents in the world at the end of the year when they want to go home?
What about players at the beginning of the year? It’s quite the opposite. They want to get ready for Australia, they want to get some matches in, they want to get rolling. They’re rested and healthy. Hell, top guys have been playing exhibitions so they can get in match play against top guys by-passing having to play much lower ranked players.
Why not throw them the carrot of all those points (and cash) and have them go at it?
I think us sports watching folk have it in our brains that all seasons must come to an end with a bang. The final series, the final round, the final game. There should be nobody but the best standing. Other than the obvious fact that tennis isn’t a team sport, how necessary is that for a season that lasts longer than any others? How bad does Rafa really want those 1500 points when he already knows he’s the year end number 1? Does Kolya winning the WTF mean that he was the greatest player of 2009?
Exactly. Instead of quietly kicking off the tennis season with events like Brisbane, Hopman Cup, or non-tour exhibitions, why not start with a bang? Get your best players together and say “this is what we’re all about, and this is why you should watch tennis this year.” Then follow it up with the Australian Open.
It’s food for thought. I understand there are a lot of hoops to jump through here. “Is it fair to have them play in London and then fly to Australia?” “Does that mean all the WTF/YECs will be held in Australia now?” “What if someone, like Fed, doesn’t want to play matches before the Australian Open?” All fair points. But I also don’t think a sick and tired JJ wants to have to grind herself into the ground at the end of the year in front of a half empty stadium against the best players out there. There’s probably some marketing issues too (though I can’t imagine London selling out in December and comparatively half empty in January).
In all honesty, this blog has been lonely, and this is the first time I’ve written something with some serious opinion behind it. I’d love to read some comments.
I don’t really see how this would help. Adding a big tournament at the beginning of the season would only make it more likely that players would be exhausted and injured for the US Open. And with no big tournament with the potential to shuffle rankings at the end of the year, the top players would take early vacations or go through the motions after the US Open even more than they do now.
We don’t know yet whether JJ and Elena are pulling out of Doha. I suspect Elena just wants a few days to recover for Doha, and I didn’t see that JJ looked any sicker or played any worse today than she has since the French Open. And Serena’s injury, however it really happened, isn’t even tennis-related.
Putting the YEC’s at the beginning of the year could help but other sports that do this, NFL Super Bowl, College Football, etc have off seasons right after, and it’s the off season that both tours need to work on.
Having said that, even though the guys play longer, they don’t have nearly the “walking wounded” problem the women have now shown up to Doha with two years running. I don’t remember LA or Madrid having these issues. I think Doha has a been a disaster for the WTA in terms of attendance and impact, but the “roadmap” isn’t working and perhaps now the tour needs to shut down soon after the U.S. Open? Who knows what they’ll do with Asia, but as the other person noted, after NY, most of the players go through the motions anyway just for the cash. Having a few weeks off and then the YEC could be the fix, but who knows.
Interesting take on that, but I’m really not sure. The whole point of the YECs are that they’re supposed to be a showdown between the best players of the year. Obviously that isn’t happening now with all the best players injured, but form doesn’t always carry over from year to year, and if it’s moved to the next year then the dynamics will be completely changed up.
I kinda feel that on the ATP side the season is just way too long. I mean Djokovic is going to have less than a month to prepare for 2011 after DC, and that’s just not on. The WTA is different though. I don’t think the length of the season is bad, but the whole “roadmap” rules are aimed at forcing the players to play regardless of whether they’re injured, and then at the end of the year Stacey Allaster reads a list of stats about how withdrawals have dropped by 743829332987432987% in the past year (which actually happened just a couple of days ago) .
Some of these injuries have just been freak accidents – Serena and the glass, Justine falling at Wimbledon, Vika at the US Open. But I feel like so many of these injuries could’ve been avoided by players just resting up. I mean JJ can barely beat players in the top 800 since she had that ankle injury at Portoroz. Everyone has been quick to say it’s her own fault for not pulling out and resting, but she was only follwing the WTA rules.
Also, as players get older they naturally get more injury prone. Problem is that we are still relying on the older players (The Big 4, Demented etc.) and there is no new generation coming up to replace them. At this point around 13 years ago, Graf, Seles and all the rest were going through exactly what the Williams and Belgians are going through with injuries, but players like Davenport, Hingis, the Williamses and the rest were slowly taking their places. Obviously Wozniacki is number one, but will she ever be a viable replacement for Venus, Serena, Justine or Kim? And then there’s Azarenka and Radwanska who can’t even stay in the top 8 for longer than a minute. I just feel like it’s not just the length of the season, but so many different things combined that have contributed to so many of the best players in the world being injured.
It’s never gonna happen – but as tennis fans in Australia have to put up with 11 months of sleepless nights and Time Zone Conversion Failures…. WTF / YEC in Australia at the start of the year? YES PLEASE!!! Seriously though, the ATP Calendar is ridiculous. Not only is it a longer year than other professional sports, but spread across the whole globe and one-on-one, the most physically and emotionally demanding as well. The politics of dropping tournaments is creating unrealistic demands on players. I say give players more choice over their schedule. Even a small reduction in compulsory tourneys would help. Sure, a few tourneys might lose a few higher-ranked players, but better that than have so many forced to withdraw due to injuries.