WTA & ATP ‘call the shots’
If you have been watching this year’s North American Hard court Tennis season on television, now on, you would have noticed a sign saying “US OPEN SERIES” with a sponsor’s name, on the side-screens of the courts. In the US-Open there were additional prizes – one, for winning the “US-Open title” and a second prize related to the “US-Open-Series” performance. It is to make Tennis popular in the USA and Canada again. US-Open Series is a circuit of few tournaments with mega prize money. It ends up with the last Grand Slam of the year – the US-Open in Flushing Meadows, New York. The WTA and ATP play a major role towards the success of this series. It has proved to be a winning formula!
The “US-Open-series” gives Tennis the ‘league’ blend making every Tournament in the circuit to be significant. This could be the trend in the future - the formation of regional tournament circuits. In North America it is trying to reverse the Tennis appeal which has been registering a noticeable drop in participation and spectatorship in the last decade. The US-OPEN SERIES
Women’s Tennis Association [WTA] and the Association of Tennis Professionals [ATP] for men, are the player’s bodies in international Tennis. They also own tournament rights and sell them to sports organizers and promoters worldwide. According to the strength of the prize money, these two professional bodies grade the tournaments. Seeing their influence today in global Tennis, one cannot fail to notice how well they have tailored the events to promote Tennis players’ needs. Before WTA and ATP which came to being relatively recently, players were under the control of their national Associations and the financial scope was limited or non-existent and careers were restrictive.
When professional Tennis started, way back in the 1960s not being allowed into amateur tournaments, I remember reading about pros playing on the streets of Johannesburg for 25 dollar cents per every rally won. Recently Martina Navratilova revealed the pittance she received when she won her first Wimbledon title many years ago but this year’s Wimbledon women’s winner Petra Kvitova took a whopping figure of over a million pounds home. Player benefits
With profound changes, the professional bodies had to address two issues. First, events were tilted too much to the benefit of the top fifty players. The professional bodies did their home work and have changed this. Today tournaments are in multiple tiers and the financial benefits reach out to the top 2000 or more players around the world. Some player are happy to be in the top one hundred where they do not face the possibility of fast ‘burn-out’ and the threat of exit from Tennis. Support to Tournaments
Second issue for the professional bodies is to help the Tournament organizers to have successful events and good financial balance. The main attractions of any tournament are the star players and good matches. Without these key elements it is very difficult for the Tournament organizers to attract sponsors and spectators. WTA and ATP with their elite line up of players, have a strong position when it comes to this aspect. The US-Open-Series of 2014 attracted the best players in the world. WTA and ATP seem to have helped the tournament organizers very much. The salient aspect of the ‘series’ idea is that, it has the strength to raise the status of the minor tournaments to be a part of the bigger picture. The US-Open- Series has proved be very successful in this regard. WTA and ATP are now in a position to call the shots for the benefit of the players and the success of Tournaments. Privileges of the US-Open Series 2014
The American cities which have been in the US-Open Series since 2004 are Atlanta, Washington, Toronto, Montreal, Cincinnati, Salem, Connecticut, New Haven, Stanford and US-Open in New York. As a combined series these cities get over 60 hours of Television prime time and extensive media coverage in the two months of summer. Something that is not affordable as individual tournaments. The series as a circuit keeps the names of cities alive throughout the series. This makes the city folks to follow the series throughout the seven weeks. It also means Tennis gets a bigger media audience in North America.
The US-Open-Series has been very rewarding to players financially. It has enabled the winners to take the biggest pay packet in the history of the game. Rafael Nadal collected 3.6 million, winning the series and the US Open in one day. Many women and men have got over 2 million winning the US-OpenSeries and US-Open titles. Size of the prize money attracts people as Big money is ‘Big’ interest. William sisters – last of USA?
The current status of players in the 2014 ‘US-Open Series’ after 3 weeks has placed Jo Wilfred Tsonga of France as number one, Canadian, Milos Raonic as two and ‘evergreen’ Roger Federer as three. In the women’s side Serena and Venus Williams occupy first and the third positions with second position going to Poland’s Agnieska Radwanska. Cincinnati tournament is on at the moment. The appearance of Venus Williams is a surprise, considering her recent form but her career record as a player puts this to be well within her reach. Venus produces a different blend of Tennis compared to her sister Serena. In the mean while handful of American women are making their presence felt but not dominant in the US-Open-Series. Some years ago, US players filled half of the Grand Slam draws. At present there are too few US players and teams in any of the big global Tennis events. Are the Williams sisters, the ‘end of the line’ for USA? I hope not. Immediate future of Tennis
For a good foreseeable future, the present strength of the WTA and ATP will call the shots and steer the Tennis world. It will be a delicate balancing act on their part to create a win-win situation to all involved. For the time being, a string of tournaments as a ‘series’ can take away the burden of Tournament organizers as it pools the need, produces a long term interest, shares the burdens and increases Tennis awareness among large segments of people. The next few weeks will be a good time to see ‘high speed Tennis’ on North American Hard Courts. Strangely enough even with this kind of speed, some games lasted over 12 minutes. Tennis players have indeed become extreme athletes. In the mean while the “US Open Series” is proving itself to be the right thing to bring Tennis back to North America.
George Paldano, former international player; Accredited Coach of Germany, ITF and USPTR; National, Davis Cup and Federation Cup Coach--gptennis.ceylon@gmail.com