GAME TODAY IS A HOUSE DIVIDED

WE are up to our eyeballs with Brexit and US Government shutdowns all indicative of bipartisanship and presidential tampering with the status quo, in the name of making Britain and America great again. And it seems tennis and its disparate governing bodies are going down the same slippery slope. A war is brewing as officials tinker ever more pro-actively with conditions, technology, rules and pay packages to make – you guessed it – tennis, in their own domain, great again: And let’s not forget – “It’s the economy stupid” – that ultimately dictates. Money (prize-money) is either the big incentive, or the root of all evil, depending on which side of the border, or net you are standing. Jim Courier dropped a bomb on radio last year, divulging, that at the direct instruction of US Open president, David Brewer, court surfaces had been changed at the 2018 Arthur Ashe arena to favour the American players, specifically women, to emulate the dream line-up of four Americans in the 2017 singles finals. However, with shocking ventilation from the closed roof, coupled with humidity and heat akin to a Caribbean island, things somewhat backfired, contributing to gruelling matches, longer rallies and a relative nightmare for most players, including the Americans. Ironically the US women fared better at the Australian Open this year, where more tampering was afoot to slow down the game, not necessarily to favour the Aussies, but to woo younger fans with a shorter concentration span, who demand instant gratification (20 to 30-shot rallies obviously don’t fit that mould). But this time the balls had again been changed from Wilson to heavier Dunlop, where they don’t arrive on the racket as easily and players have to work harder for their points, necessitating presumably shorter rallies. Why players can’t do what Roger Federer does and keep the rallies short of their own volition, by volleying more, instead of relying on officials to fiddle around with everything, from roofs to rules, to obtain basically the same result, beats me. Even Stefanos Tsitsipas insisted, post his Australian Open quarter win over ‘Mighty Fed’, that he too will be on a mission to reintroduce the art of volleying, a la his Swiss hero, who has been lobbying that point since volleying expert, Stephan Edberg, was on Fed’s team. It is a more consistent solution than consistently messing around with court surfaces and equipment – and cheaper too. On the subject of money, the most radical changes orchestrated by rival tennis bodies have been to reconstruct the Davis Cup and introduce the ATP Cup, where the world’s best players compete for their nations, in similar events, staged at different venues. Prize-money for the latter, being bigger than ever; stacked up, Trump could use it to build his border wall. And therein lies the perennial problem, between Haves and Have Nots and those on the wrong side of bipartisanship, or between players and the array of self interested bodies presiding over tennis. The gap between the earning capacity of mega-stars like Djokovic and Federer, and players ranked outside the top 100, is as big as that dodgy border between Mexico and Texas. Djokovic, as president of the Players Council, is sympathetic to the plight of lesser mortals and the jury is still out on whether ATP president Chris Vermode is going to be voted in again this year. Some social benefits have been dished out in the way of pension play, new rules for injured players and the introduction of the deciding set tie-break, preventing long term injury to players finding themselves in a marathon, rather than a tennis match. However money and TV rights talk and every partisan president of a Major wants to hear his Slam is “the greatest and most fun to be at”, especially if his national squad is not living up to sponsors expectations and are at each other’s throats. I think Australian Davis Cup captain Lleyton Hewitt has a point in saying that ex-barcelona player and head of World Tennis, Gerard Pique, has no right trying to turn tennis into “the beautiful game” – it already is, without the tampering and bipartisanship. Players today are talented enough to shorten rallies on their own: Aussie great Lew Hoad used to yell to his wife, Jenny, also a No 1, mid-match – “One long, one short!” – or throw in a lob now and again...how difficult can it be?..