Some Suggested Changes for Professional Tennis
Another U.S. Open has come and gone and now the tennis world prepares for the 2010 edition. This is a good time to reflect—on what things are good about tennis and where the sport could be improved. Here are three changes that could make this excellent sport a great one.
1) The three main governing bodies should merge. While the ATP, ITF and WTA have begun working more closely together, a better solution would be a complete merger. This would be more efficient and ensure that there’s less confusion in the sport because there will be just one ruling authority. Let there be no mistake: Most of the confusion about the rules in tennis comes from the fact that there is more than one governing authority.
2) There should be a ranking bonus for those tennis players who play doubles. By creating an incentive for them to play both, they will likely be more willing to accept the extra toll on their bodies. Anyone who plays in both should get a 20 percent increase in ratings points inthat tournament in both doubles and singles.
3) It would be nice of all grand slam finals, with the exception of juniors, were sets of best-of-five. This would not be unprecedented, since the WTA Tour Championship final, from 1983 to 1998, were best-of-five. And anyone who saw those games know that many of the finals from those years were quite competitive and entertaining. As of now, the only major tournament with gentlemen’s doubles that go best-of-give is Wimbledon, but in an ideal world, all of the tournaments should do so—at least during the finals.
4) There are coaches in school tennis, why not in professional tennis? Coaching from the coaches’ boxes should be a no-brainer. Some people have suggested this might slow down the game, but there are ways of handling this to keep it from happening.
5) The ATP, ITF and WTA all proscribe 20 seconds to serve between points, but this is rarely enforced. Enforcing this 20 second service rule would do much to speed up tennis. In fact, it might even be a good idea to have a clock installed that is stared by the chair umpire after each point, and which beeps after 20 seconds. If the clock beeps, the player is then charged with a fault.
All of these suggestions are easily implemented and could make next year’s U.S. Open, as well as the other big tennis event,, more accessible to newcomers to the game. See http://usopentickets.org for more on U.S. Open Tennis