Milan’s NEW-GEN promotion
View(s):Story of the missing Big Five
In recent times, five Men’s players anchored Tennis and steered the exhibition of the game to thrill thousands. They are Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Stan Wawrinka, Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic. At the season-ending Paris Masters this year, they have to be named as the missing links. Only one, Nadal, appeared in Paris, and he too withdrew in the quarters.
The dominance of these five has been long, in fact, too long. As a result, the world of Tennis got built up around them. Their absence is hurting the game, more precisely, said the tournament directorate. Frenchman Guy Forget, a Top 10 player in his time, is the Tournament Director of the Paris Masters. He burst out in a very rare angry comment. It was directed against none other than maestro Roger Federer. Soon after winning the title in his hometown of Basel in Switzerland, Federer announced his withdrawal from the Paris event, hours before its start. Forget came out hard and said it was selfish of Federer to do so.
Federer has been selective this year, playing to ‘preserve his ageing body’. Unfortunately, it does not fit into the Tournament Director’s responsibility of ‘the show will go on’ commitments to the sponsors. This was the grudge Forget had.
NEW-GEN as ATP insurance
For the ATP too, this vacuum created by the Top five is not acceptable. So, they are looking for alternatives to sustain Tennis’ popularity. It is even implied that the reign of the Famous five has been too long and is the reason behind the dearth of new talent emerging in Tennis. It is an arguable statement.
In the recent past, a good score of young talent appeared, and then vanished, unable to cope with the mental and physical strain of the open professional circuit. Now the ATP is developing NEW-GEN Under (U)-21 platform as an insurance policy – adversity can be good at times. Eight of the highest ranked players, U-21 years, played their finals in Milan last week.
The eight are Canadian Denis Shapovalov, Russia’s Andrey Rublev, Karen Khachanov and Daniil Medvedev, Korea’s Hyeon Chung, Croatia’s Borna Coric, USA’s Jared Donaldson and Italy’s Gianluigi Quinz. Seven of these Top eight are in the top 100 of the ATP Ranking. The last one is ranked 306, which goes to show how few young players are there in the top 400.
No Linesmen – Testing technology
We are accustomed to seeing Linesmen on a Tennis court. The NEW-GEN in Milan was played without Linesmen. Technology has advanced sufficiently to keep lines, accept players’ challenges, show winners and shots landing five centimetre outside the line. All these were replayed automatically on the big screen – excitement made expensive and enhanced.
Changing the scoring system is the other innovation. No advantage after deuce has been around for a while, making a game have only seven rallies. The objective being to save players from long matches. In the NEW-GEN it will be the standard method. This limitation is not that welcome among players.
Big names and injuries
Any player in competition faces injuries. In the professional circuit, this shows itself in an intensity that could be termed ‘chronic’. Most of it comes from high intensity in training. High intensity training gives mental confidence, but it also burns up physical energy and takes the body to the threshold of injuries. This is what has happened to the Top Five.
For Wawrinka, Murray and Djokovic the season is over. The reason? Injuries. Their absence in the year ending finals in London this week, will be felt and will have an impact on the popularity of Tennis. The ATP’s role will be under the microscope. In 1972, when the ATP began, no one really envisaged this scale of popularity. It can be said that, this has been achieved at the cost of players physical breakdown.
World Ranking is a magic word in all disciplines of sports. Staying at the top of the world ranking opens up the possibility of seeing mega bucks. That is selling their skills and even more their name. As things stand, the system will not change in favour of the players.
Recess?
When the Masters final ends in London, officially, the players are not bound to play in any event till the next season but, the ATP events do go on till early December. Some players will not have the rest they need, just to pick up the Ranking points they need, to go up. Then there is this option of exhibition matches which gives players good money. The 2018 season begins in Australia, in the first week of January.
The Men’s world ranking has over 2,500 players. The situation the ATP faces is how much can they change, just to accommodate the Top 10 players. They have the responsibility to play fair by over 5,000 players. It could be said there is no recess in professional Tennis. The big names have been in this grinding circuit for as much as 12 long years. In Federer’s case, it could be 20. In the history of professional Tennis, players have been around till they cannot win anymore.
-George Paldano, Former int. player; Accredited Coach of German Federation; National coach Sri Lanka & Brunei, Davis-Cup, Federation Cup captain/coach– contact 94 77 544 8880 geodano2015@gmail.com –