Part one of a comprehensive preview of the 2007 ATP campaign: A, interesting look at the introduction of round-robin play, the complete dominance of Roger Federer, and the cloudy future of Rafael Nadal.
Round-robin play still feels "fake" to me, probably because before this bone-headed idea, it was in the domain of exhibition hit-n-giggles. The Slams will never go round-robin. That committee is about the only sane body left in professional tennis these days.
posted by somethingotherthan at 10:24 PM on January 08, 2007
I don't think it's controversial, but if the purpose is to generate interest, I don't see its being particularly effective. Tennis needs to make things more easily understandable to the casual viewer: Case in point, Davis Cup. I'm not convinced the players necessarily know how that works. I won't mind RR, as long as we don't see a return to the days when players had too much of an incentive to tank a match just so they'd play a less dangerous opponent in the next round.
posted by oberyn at 07:34 PM on January 23, 2007
Let's try this one more time. I don't see the round-robin as being that controversial, unless and until we see it in a major.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 07:05 PM on January 08, 2007