Sports / Tennis
No more round Robin for ATP
(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-03-22 08:57
The ATP men's tennis tour has ended its controversial flirtation with a
round-robin system at some of its tournaments, it announced on Wednesday.
The system had come in for some heavy criticism, including world number
one Roger Federer after he won in Dubai earlier this month, though, that
was a straight knockout tournament.
The Swiss was complaining about the controversy which developed on March
1 at the Las Vegas ATP tournament after James Blake was wrongly given a
place in the quarter-finals and ATP chief Etienne de Villiers apologized
for mistakenly intervening.
However the sudden u-turn over abandoning the round robin system will be
an embarrassment for de Villiers.
"Remaining events who had volunteered for the round-robin format will
revert to knock-out," an ATP statement said.
"The ATP had begun testing several versions of the format at lower level
events this year following initial research that indicated it could be a
measure to provide significant growth to the game.
"The research showed it was popular among casual fans.
"However, the carefully monitored testing at the five test case events
this year raised a number of concerns and weaknesses that were not
apparent from desk research.
"Firstly, the 32 hybrid format caused confusion; second, resolving who
would progress from the round robin stage with three-men groups was often
complicated; and third, sections of the media had difficulty in reporting
round-robin and consequently fans not at the event had difficulty in
following early results.
"Finally, and significantly, no format or rule could address the
overwhelming player concern that their destiny was not in their own hands
as a result of dead matches or withdrawals."
Federer predicted back on March 3 the round-robin system which led to the
confusion and to the reinstatement of Evgeny Korolev for Blake in San
Diego would be abandoned by the end of this year.
"Everyone knows that I was against it in the first place," he said. "It's
very disappointing that things like this have to happen before you
realize that actually this system was not going to work.
"And I have nothing against Etienne de Villiers because he is trying his
best.
"All I hope is that he doesn't change the integrity of the game.
"And I've always said you have to keep tennis the way it is and not try
to change and mix it up and try too many things at the same time. And now
he's burned his hand on this that's for sure.
"I doubt that it is going to happen next year - the round-robin system."
The ATP introduced the round robin experiment partly so that spectators
should be certain of seeing big name players at least once, thus helping
to promote the sport.
But it has also attracted criticism for being hard on the lesser players,
who it was felt would not get full value for causing an upset.
Top Sports News
� Round-up 2-Arsenal's Lehmann quiet on future
� Platini to present plans for beefed-up presidency
� China ends years of drought in women's platform
� No more round Robin for ATP
� China wins two more diving golds
Today's Top News
� President's Russian visit to yield $4.3b deals
� Nuke talks extended over funds
� China stocks hit record high
� Democrats set Iraq deadline in war bill
� 2 Chinese workers abducted in Nigeria
Most Commented/Read Stories in 48 Hours
Learn Chinese, Learn Mandarin online, Learning Materials, Mandarin audio lessons, Chinese writing lessons, Chinese vocabulary lists, About chinese characters, News in Chinese, Go to China, Travel to China, Study in China, Teach in China, Dictionaries, Learn Chinese Painting, Your name in Chinese, Chinese calligraphy, Chinese songs, Chinese proverbs, Chinese poetry, Chinese tattoo, Beijing 2008 Olympics, Mandarin Phrasebook, Chinese editor, Pinyin editor, China Travel, Travel to Beijing, Travel to Tibet
No comments:
Post a Comment