Making Women's Pro Tennis More Popular

In case you missed it, here is an article at On the Baseline about what the WTA Tour can do to to improve the popularity of tennis (as a spectator sport).

For the most part, I agree, especially with the suggestion to make sure the top players compete in the Tier I events (instead of allowing them to be bought off by big purses in upstart tournaments). The ATP doesn't allow its top players to just sell themselves to the highest bidder, and neither should the WTA. It's greedy and bad for the game.

I would add another consideration though.

The overall quality of play is part of the problem, I think. Choking, robotic serves, double-faulting streaks ... to the point that it is PAINFUL to watch. Yes, it can happen on the men's tour, but it is much more common on the women's tour, where it affects the quality of matches even at the very top.

People come to expect it and lose interest. We want to see free and uninhibeted swings and serves. We want to see players who are not afraid of the net. We want to see players who are not head cases, who bring their A game with them almost every time, players who relish the thrill of competition and thrive on it.

The depth of the field in women's tennis will never be as great as in men's tennis, simply because we'll never have as many young women wanting to play pro tennis. But the depth can be better than it is, and it has been better in the past.

Also, part of what we see is the fruit of girls and women being coached exclusively by men, which often sidetracks them into an obsession with form that comes from playing to win your coach's approval of your swing instead of to control where the ball goes.

That gives rise to a host of problems, both technical and psychological.

But this is not an insurmountable problem. Both the coaches and players simply need to be aware of this dynamic between female players and male coaches to watch out for it.

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