DW: Round-Robin Rashness

By Dave Winship
OnTheLine.org

The Next Generation Adelaide International, starting on the first day of 2007, will be the first ATP event to use the new experimental round-robin format. ATP chairman Etienne de Villiers appears to have sold the idea to tournament directors, members of the ATP Player Council and a whole host of concurring players and pundits who may well have paid scant attention to the detail. "We will have 12 tournaments or so experimenting next year," said De Villiers, who is keen to make the new format mandatory for 2009. "Most of the players are very positive about this."

Tournament directors would not have needed much persuading. Delray Beach tournament director Mark Baron was just one of those voicing unreserved approval. "Spectators will get to see all the seeded players at least twice, which is great," he enthused. "Before, if a top seed had a bad match, he was out. Now, you could see him in the final. And we'll start on Sunday, which allows us to have a big family day, something we've always wanted. All in all, this is great news for our event."

The round-robin has previously been used only at the year-end Masters Cup and the World Team Championship in Dusseldorf.

Apparently, the French phrase rond ruban derives from an 18th century French military practice. When officers sought redress of a grievance by means of a petition, their superiors were sometimes inclined to seize and execute those whose names headed the list, so it became customary to sign such petitions in a circular form.

If Etienne de Villiers heads the list of round-robin advocates, the name of Rafael Nadal is not far behind. "People want to see Federer or Roddick. Now perhaps me," the world number two told reporters recently, "and this way they will see them at least twice, instead of once. If the world number two or the number one lose in the first round, it is a catastrophe for the tournament." It's rather ironic that Nadal should attribute his recent run of poor form to fatigue because round-robin tournaments will certainly make the tour schedule even more onerous than it is already. While tournament directors rub their hands at the prospect of starting the round-robin events on Sundays, overlapping with the final day of the previous week's tournaments, the Spaniard will see his seven-day working week become an eight-day one! Tournaments like the pre-Wimbledon Stella Artois Championships in London will probably opt for a 48-man draw, with 16 groups of three. The finalists will therefore play six matches instead of the five required previously. Ouch! No wonder Roger Federer has turned against the idea.

Even if the Tour eventually sees the light and replaces groups of three with groups of four, other worrying factors will surely surface. One such drawback is the potential for players to indulge in "tanking" or not trying too hard once they have ensured their progression to the elimination stage. Lindsay Davenport is concerned about such dubious tactical ploys. "There (could be) a lot of fixing if your friend needs you to win or lose or whatever," she warned. "A lot of things could happen. There are some kinks to be worked out for sure."

"I'm very, very excited because this is something I petitioned for for a long time," said Mark Baron. I hope he and his fellow advocates had the foresight to sign their names in circular fashion. Otherwise, it's off with his head!

Copyright 2006, Dave Winship -- all rights reserved worldwide

Dave Winship is an L.T.A. coach at the Caversham Park Tennis Club in Berkshire, England, and the author of OnTheLine.org magazine at www.tennisontheline.org.

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