After watching the debut of Fast4 Tennis over the past week I couldn’t help but ask myself why? Why do we need to revolutionise tennis? Indeed, many others have asked this question and with varying opinions.
It was always going to be tough to launch a new format of tennis in the Australian Open season. Channel Nine was left to pick up a ragtag group of commentators, Roger Federer was lethargic and half-paced for much of the night after playing a rigourous three-hour match the previous evening, and a slowing Lleyton Hewitt was happy to show off all his trademark shots one last time before what could be his last Australian Open. This was Fast4 Tennis.
In dredging up two of the game’s most senior and well-known figures, the opening night wasn’t even so much a showcase for a new sport. If anything, it was nostalgic – an exhibition of old friends showcasing all their shots for a crowd that seemed to contain an awful lot of celebrities filling seats.
As we come around to another Australian Open this week, Fast4 Tennis will quickly be put in its place – its mild reception making way for the thriving hub that is January in Melbourne Park. For this, I must admit some relief. There is need for change in tennis, but perhaps not in the aforementioned manner.
As David has already written of Fast4 on The Roar, there is merit in trying out new avenues for breeding interest in the game beyond its current audience. And it is never going to be easy. Particularly given that tennis is not typically the type of game where there are obvious major points for change.
Team sports like cricket and rugby have developed incarnations of variable success, most notably because they change the way the game is played. Compare rugby sevens to the 15-a-side game or T20, one-day and Test cricket – the methods of attack and defence, and the skills required are changed dramatically.
Fast4 Tennis’s alterations, by comparison, are not nearly as evident, unless you look at the scoreboard or someone hits a let. Players still play each point on its merits, they still use the same shots, the same court. It’s just a bit too similar, and when Channel Nine said they were introducing a revolution in tennis, there were understandably a few scratched heads.
Yet, just as Fast4 is flawed in its marketing, I would posit that so is tennis in general. In its haste to discover a new fan-base, the game of tennis has seemingly ignored a form of the game that is already entrenched. One that showcases an entirely different array of skills, including reflexes, strategy and courtcraft, but has been repeatedly ignored and shelved as being inferior.
It’s called doubles. It has been wilfully neglected as a premier form of the game, and it deserves better.
In Australia at least, it has been positioned as an inferior form of the game since the Woodies retired. It pays poorly, so doesn’t attract the big names. It is rarely broadcast on television, and usually as unplanned filler when it is. This scarcity of coverage is due to it being squeezed into the schedule at awkward times when everyone has switched off.
In all, it has been diminished to being a sideshow to the singles. This has happened to such an extent that it has been forced to change its scoring system to a watered down version with Power-Points at 40-40 and a first-to-10 tiebreak substituting for a third set, which admittedly is quite captivating.
Yet hardly anyone notices, because we never hear about it. As a result, not many people know just how good doubles can be, and that the rapid-fire, all-court gameplay can often be a much better exhibition of the game than the baseline monotony that pervades singles tennis. Look at the Hopman Cup or the Davis Cup and you’ll see.
Ultimately, in the new world of sports broadcasting and viewer behaviours, there is a need for change in tennis. But before we start trying to invent new formats such as Fast4, why not take another look at doubles and see if we can’t salvage something. It is genuinely fast, exhilarating and the world’s best team is a pair of identical twins. What’s not to like?
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