- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
Now that we’ve made our way through the American March, we’ve had to put up with more talk of a ‘fifth Slam’ for another year.
For another year, people seek more grandeur and ‘top tennis’ while the sport they love continues to suffer unbeknownst to many.
It’s getting on my nerves to hear talk of people pushing for one of the two American Masters tournaments, Indian Wells and Miami, to be given ‘Grand Slam’ status.
It seems to me like there are far more pressing issues in the tennis world to be discussing, namely the topic that will never go away from the game, court homogenisation.
But lets put that aside just for a moment.
The problem is that the world never seems content to let traditions carry on. People seem to forget that the more you have of something, the less value it will acquire.
The Australian Open is the baby brother of the four Grand Slam siblings at a meagre 108 years old.
There are very few things left in the world, especially in the world of sport, that can claim such a pattern of consistency and lack of change. It would be nice if we could respect that.
If you make another Grand Slam tournament, it slowly takes the shine off all of the other ones year by year.
A new Slam would certainly try to assert its dominance through superior prize money, facilities and promotion at the cost of the others. No thanks.
Last time I checked, didn’t the respective ATP and WTA schedules seem crammed and condensed enough as it was?
I think the last thing they could use is a more strenuous tournament. The sports faithful may forget that those are human beings on the tennis court.
Let’s put the ‘fifth Slam’ talk to rest, for good.
One of the more pressing issues happening in tennis is the desire for organisers to create tournaments with surfaces promoting ‘entertaining’ tennis. Entertaining is the super-secret code-word for slow, I’ve discovered.
This year’s Australian Open fourth round match between Novak Djokovic and Stanislas Wawrinka would have been won comfortably by the latter on a more traditional hard court surface that didn’t continually hold the ball for Djokovic to scramble to.
While the match itself was a very high quality affair for the most part, there would be very few opportunities for a man playing a hard-hitting game like Wawrinka to put opponents away due to the court.
Grass was supposed to be the surface that the ball skidded off, not kicked off. Today, Wimbledon is green clay disguised as grass and to deny such an accusation is pointless. I doubt a peak-form Pete Sampras would make a final today.
The Australian Open is now arguably the slowest of the four majors. The French would have died laughing if you told them that 20 years ago.
In further support to the claims of players that the tour is too grueling and long, did they ever consider the toil and strain slower courts put on their bodies? There’s only so much they can be expected to do. But there’s a fix waiting right around the corner.
Of the nine Masters 1000 tournaments, six are on hard courts and three are on clay.
I ask a simple question: for the sake of variety, the game itself and players of all builds and sizes, why do we not have a Masters grass court tournament? I’m talking Halle grass, not Wimbledon. The speedy stuff.
Perhaps upgrade one of Wimbledon’s lead up tournaments to a 1000 level? There’s hardly any space on the calendar, as I’ve already said, to simply create one.
It’s either upgrade or pull the plug on a current tournament and replace it.
This era of tennis has drawn in a ton of new tennis followers who have only witnessed the game styles of the top four players and don’t have the time for the more make-or-break players who can’t get lucky on the current surfaces.
Sport itself is built on variety. Players with different style, height, characteristics, attitudes and aggression.
Tennis court variety has always helped bring this to the fore. But our insatiable hunger for longer and more ‘exciting’ matches push it away.
Take a look at the world’s top ten players and note how many of them are defensive baseline players. In five years time you’ll be hard pressed to find any that aren’t. This is plain wrong.
Aggressive tennis is dying right before our eyes, yet we sit back and do nothing about it. How about changes for the sake of the sport and not for the spectacle?
Stop the talk of more big tournaments and put your minds to work at fixing the calendar and the courts. It’s common sense.
Whether it’s aces or races, try out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp for great odds and a great punting experience. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.