Summer Hard Court Ramblings

It has been a while since I’ve posted…but that is mainly due to the fact that anything written last week would have seemed mundane after the greatest match ever played. I thought everyone could use a little break. Well, that and of course there has been a severe lack of tennis related news lately. So here are some thoughts heading into the US Open Series, Olympics and US Open. Read more

Grass Court Preview

The short Grass Court season is upon us, and so I thought I would share a few of my thoughts.

- First off, don’t be fooled by Federer’s ’struggles’ during the clay court season. If my struggles meant I would win one tournament (Estoril), make it to the finals of a Masters event (Hamburg), and make the finals of the French Open for the Read more

Upheavel on the Red Dirt

We are all aware, by now, that Nadal was upended by compatriot Juan Carlos Ferrero in the Second Round of the Italian Open. In the few days since, even more shocking events have occurred. First off, Americans James Blake & Andy Roddick somehow managed to last longer than Nadal did. As I am American myself, I highly applaud their efforts, but would not expect a repeat occurence in Paris later this month. Blake ended up losing in three sets this morning to Wawrinka, and Roddick takes on Tommy Robredo Read more

Schedule Changes

I was planning on writing about some current events in tennis, but since we are having a typical clay court season thus far (as in, Nadal absolutely dominating), I thought I’d post another debatable topic. After posting my Davis/Fed Cup proposed changes last week, it got me thinking quite a bit about the tennis schedule as a whole. So here is Part I of my ATP/WTA calendar review (Part II will happen -when, I have no idea).

For years the dates of the Australian Open (typically the last two weeks of January) have been the subject of some rather heated debate. After going to Melbourne for the first time this year, I think the dates should definitely be changed. My proposal would more or less call to push the Australian Open, along with the Australia warm up tournaments (Adelaide, Sydney, etc.) to the month of March, and moving the winter/spring hard court season back a month. This would push tournaments like Delray, Las Vegas, Dubai, and Memphis to January, followed by the two Masters Series events, Pacific Life Open and Sony Ericsson open in February (typically held in March).

The most obvious reason for the change is weather. Playing the Australian Open in January, right in the middle of their summer (seasons are opposite in the Southern Hemisphere, just like the direction the toilet bowl flushes), seems to go against common sense. The fact that the tournament even has a “hot weather rule” speaks volumes as to why it should be held in March, Australia’s Autumn. After looking up average weather for most of these cities, each tournament would have an average temperature of 5 degrees (Fahrenheit) lower than what they are currently at. Moreover, the average rain totals are about equal for each tournament. The only negative that springs to mind is nights at the Pacific Life Open can sometimes already be quite chilly, so a temperature drop there would certainly not be beneficial, although the Sony and Pac Life could always be flip flopped as well. So, even though there are some negatives, the positives drawn in terms of the weather changes seem to greatly outweigh the negatives.

A secondary reason for the change is because having the first Grand Slam of the year so early simply seems odd. A player’s off season is short enough as it is (a topic for Part II) so how do they get to start the new season? By traveling halfway around the world (for most competitors), getting two weeks to warm up and then play a Grand Slam. What would make the most sense is to cut out a couple weeks of the calendar, play a couple of regular level events in the Americas/Europe (again, a more central location than Australia), before having two Masters Events with Sony Ericsson and Pacific Life (another advantage to having the Pac Life second is California is closer to Australia), and THEN players can travel to Australia for the warm up events, before concluding the first part of the season with the first Grand Slam of the season.

Isn’t that how the rest of the season works? There are clay court tournaments in Europe leading up to the French Open, some grass court events before Wimbledon, and finally the US Open Series, all hard court events, before the US Open. I’m well aware that changing the schedule poses a few more logistical problems than simply moving one tournament here, and another there; but it certainly doesn’t seem nearly as complicated as say, the round robin format that the ATP tried to institute in 2007?

EDIT: At time of posting, Nadal just lost to Ferrero 7-5, 6-1 in the 3rd round in Rome.

Alter the Davis Cup?

After discussing the incredible lack of coverage for both the Fed and Davis Cups this past month, I got into a pretty heated discussion about the formats for both with a couple of other tennis geeks. There were many ideas tossed about, most of which were trying to use a format from a different event and apply it to the Davis/Fed Cups (from now on I’ll just use “Davis Cup,” but it applies to both). So let’s think, what could we possibly do to make the Davis Cup better? What other country wide team event can we use as a basis for our new Davis Cup format? Read more