One of the most persistent and erroneous mantras in the world of tennis is that the sport is in crisis because it ranks twelfth or who knows where in the popularity and interest rankings in the United States.
This fact, if it serves any purpose, is to reinforce the strength of tennis: it is one of the leading international sports without being a priority in the United States. Deeply rooted in Europe, Latin America and other regions, there is no fear of the unfathomable powers of pickleball that are shaking the American establishment.
It is therefore curious that tennis, caught up in its eternal race to generate more money, has come up with two novel ideas in recent days, precisely in the United States: one very bad and one very good.
The Cincinnati finals on a Monday are more than an extravagance: they are a pure conceptual aberration formulated from a bubble that isolates the powers of tennis from society.
The relaunch of mixed doubles by the US Open, on the other hand, is a smart way for tennis to adapt to the evolution of society: women and men shining side by side, in this case on the same side of the net.
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What was the idea behind playing the Cincinnati finals on a Monday? The ATP explained it to CLAY: ‘The tournament schedule, including the Monday final in Cincinnati, was developed in close consultation with all impacted tournaments. Key considerations included the expansion of both Toronto and Cincinnati to 12-day formats within a three-week window, as well as the objective to avoid more than a one-day overlap between Canada and Cincinnati, and with the preceding event in Washington.’
A response that reads like hieroglyphics. And if it’s difficult to understand, it’s because tennis in general is becoming increasingly complex, when one of the historical reasons for its success is its simplicity and uniformity.
There are tournaments with best-of-five set finals, but others in the same category that are decided in a three-set format; there are tournaments where the match ends with a super tiebreak; there are tournaments that use the traditional tiebreak, and others that experiment with short sets; there are tournaments that start on Monday and end on Sunday, but others start on Thursday and end on Monday; there are tournaments that are won in just four matches in four or five days and there are tournaments that require seven victories in 15 days.
Are there too many tournaments?
No, there are too many ideas, all mixed up and happening at the same time.
Tomás Carbonell, former Spanish doubles player and owner of a scathing Twitter account, believes that ‘Andrea Gaudenzi has generated more dollars in response to a suicidal strategy.’
This was in response to his compatriot Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, who added another chapter to his long list of complaints: ‘A final on a Monday, at 3 p.m. in August in Cincinnati, after the whole Toronto and Cincinnati tour, with so many withdrawals and players physically exhausted… something has to change.’
That’s what the organisers of the US Open thought about mixed doubles, which has been wandering around the tour as an endangered species for too long: something has to change.
And boy, did they do it: calling on the tour’s biggest stars to share a Tuesday and Wednesday before the start of the fourth Grand Slam is a stroke of genius. Something as simple and as complex as seeing the most talented and successful men and women on the tour doing what they do best together: playing tennis.
How did no one think of this before?
This is a real boost for Gerard Tsobanian, president and CEO of the Madrid Masters 1000, who told CLAY a few months ago that, as they stand today, doubles tournaments are a problem for tournaments.
‘Unfortunately, doubles don’t sell enough to justify the cost they represent for a tournament. I would like every singles player to also play doubles. Or for every doubles player to be required to have a certain singles ranking.’
It’s very similar to the idea implemented this year in New York with mixed doubles. But, of course, it is one thing to experiment with a small and marginal speciality such as mixed doubles, and quite another to reform men’s and women’s doubles so thoroughly. Many players have rightly chosen to specialise in doubles and give up singles. Effectively expelling them from the tour could lead to a major problem for tennis.
