ATP Chief Confident About Changes to Game

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The New York Sun

Changes are afoot in men’s tennis, and the ATP’s chairman, Etienne de Villiers, does not shy away from explaining why.

On Monday, de Villiers, a former executive at Disney who had headed the ATP for more than a year now, spoke about the tour’s recent announcement that it would change the structure of many of its tournaments beginning next year. Matches will begin on Sunday rather than Monday, and events will employ a round-robin format in the first round, much like the year-end Masters Cup. Players will split into groups, play three matches, and the winner of each group will move onto a single-elimination tournament as the week winds down.

The point of all this is to make tournaments more predictable. If Roger Federer loses his first match, at least a tournament director knows that he can sell tickets against him the following day and the next — and maybe even for the rest of the tournament. De Villiers said both Federer and Rafael Nadal have told him they are fond of the idea. Other changes, such as eliminating five-set finals in non-Grand Slam events (a particular problem in the claycourt season) and eventually eliminating back-to-back Masters Series tournaments, are meant to protect the health of players and limit the number of withdrawals (the ATP also has asked medical and science professionals to study the modern game to determine if more should be done to prevent injuries).

If you’re sensing that this format might make life more difficult for lower-ranked players who might beat Federer on one day but not twice in a week, don’t worry. You are correct. And de Villiers knows it.

“I’m afraid that’s the price we pay,” he said. “We do have people, players who have got short careers, and some will get hurt. I understand that.”

For de Villiers, the price is worth the long-term payoff. His manner was often brusque during his briefing, but it was a brusqueness that seemed more built on confidence and facts than arrogance. When the inevitable questions about tradition came his way, de Villiers was unflinching in his assessment.

“Have you looked at the figures for the BBC’s coverage in their own market of Wimbledon?” he asked, before noting that its audience had dropped 8% since 2001. “So let’s not bluff ourselves. The rest of the world’s moving forward. The rest of the world’s moving forward because they’re promoting their sport, they’re marketing their sport, they’re innovating it, making it more fan-friendly.”

As a sign of support to the players, the tour has compelled tournament directors to agree to a 10% prize money increase (prize money dropped 5% in 2004). De Villiers said it was not easy to get the directors to go along, but he saw it as a must.

“Turkeys do not vote for Christmas or Thanksgiving,” he said. “We had to break that cycle.”


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