The new year has brought along the implementation of the new rules in the men’s doubles, intended at making the game more viewer-friendly. Not surprisingly, the doubles specialists aren’t too impressed, writes Sukhwant Basra.
The new year has brought along the implementation of the new rules in the men’s doubles, intended at making the game more viewer-friendly. Not surprisingly, the doubles specialists aren’t too impressed, writes Sukhwant Basra
The message from the ATP to the doubles fellows is pretty clear: keep it short, nobody is watching you anyway.
A fresh set of rules to bring in the singles faces to make doubles hum is being implemented from this week on the ATP Tour. Doha, Adelaide and Chennai are the first tournaments to implement the no-ad scoring at deuce and a 10-point decisive tiebreak at one set all.
Even entry is no longer confined to the doubles ranking and specialists in the tandem version find themselves at a disadvantage with the best ATP ranking of a player - be it singles or doubles - being taken into account.
Change is seldom embraced easily by those who stand to lose the most in the new scheme. Understandably enough, both Leander Paes and partner Martin Damm were not too pleased.
“The whole emphasis is at roping in the big names in singles. But even with the matches shorter I don’t see the top-10 turning up for doubles. And honestly enough without them, the rest of the singles players really do not count,” says Paes.
While Paes is quite the diplomat when it comes to expressing his views, Damm hit out sans reserve. “I don’t think we have been heard by the ATP. This format is rubbish. There is too much of the luck factor coming into play. The team winning the second set has the advantage going into the decisive tie-break.”
In a tiebreak, experience is always the cutting edge. In their first round match against, Ashley Fisher and Justin Gimelstob, Paes-Damm were playing the catch up game most of the time. The top seeds eventually prevailed 4-6 7-6 (3) 10-3. “We had no business winning this match but the rules swung it for us in the end,” Paes said referring to the decisive tiebreak. “There is too much of the luck factor and that reduces interest in the game.”
The other major concern that players have is that once they hit Wimbledon, they will be expected to play five sets.
“For senior citizens of the Tour like us, the shifting of gears to five-set matches is going to be all the more tough,” joked Paes who is 32.
Players are also miffed that the governing body - the ATP - is more concerned about economics and myriad other factors instead of making the welfare of players its priority. “The ATP must always protect the players. These rules do not,” asserted Paes.
Radek Stepanek — world number 20 in singles — too beileves that the changes are silly.
“I would leave the rules the way they are. Tennis has been played for so many years and there has never been a problem. This format favours luck and momentum too much.”
The new set of rules
Doubles matches in ATP tournaments and Challenger events will use a scoring format featuring two sets to six (tie-break at six-all)
No-advantage games played in the first two sets with games decided by the first point after deuce
Scraping the third set and introduction of a match tie-break (first to 10 points win by two) at one-set all
Entries to be based on a player’s best ATP ranking, either singles or doubles
Promotional initiatives to be funded and implemented by doubles players
More doubles matches on show courts
From 2008, only a new combined doubles ranking will be used to determine entries in doubles, counting 50 percent of a player’s singles points and 50 percent of his doubles points
Starting in 2008, only players in the main draw singles will be allowed to enter doubles - with two exceptions. First, tournaments can still award wild cards, and second, spots will be reserved for players with best combined rankings and not playing singles
Mahesh who?
To the eternal question on pairing up with Mahesh Bhupathi, Paes was quite enigmatic: “I enjoy playing with partners who stick to their word. They are more than just a means to fill up the trophy cabinet and the bank balance. You relate to different people at different times in life. You learn from them and teach them before moving on.” Make what you may of that.
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