Passion, Profession, Pride and Pageant

The months of

October and

November are the time for the annual finales. It is difficult to miss the variety in the content of events for these two months. The vibrancy of the players' movements and the emotion of winning and losing has taken a strong, passionate hold of all the Tennis aficionados. These two months will be the springboard for 2019.

For the top players there is money galore. The year ending ranking. places pride in them, and the orchestrated exhibition matches such as the Laver-Cup, gives an opportunity to air their personality, amidst the pageantry. It shows to what extent the game is interwoven into the socio-economic life of the global village. Purely because it is peaceful, entertaining and challenging, physically and mentally, on and off the court, at any age.

Passion for the game

Players taking to Tennis get smitten by Passion. Very easily it creates an attachment that lasts a lifetime. The ever changing and increasing dynamics of the physical ability in players, range of good movements and the test of enduring mind and body in competition, often turns into passionate aspects of spectator interest. It is stronger in people who have played Tennis.

Pride in ranking

The pride of being an accomplished player leads into recognised ranking. At every level, in all countries, ranked players take pride in their accomplishment. There are so many rankings, starting from the top end, WTA, ATP, ITF, local men and the umpteen number of Junior ranking locally in every corner of the globe.

Professional lure

In this year’s global Open-Tennis calendar, October and November had WTA finals and the Fed-Cup for Women, ATP finals and Davis-Cup for Men, ATP’s New-Gen and the annual events. What has made these events interesting and exciting is the road it takes through over 35 countries and well over 300 events in a single year. That is nearly 6 events a week. Media takes professional Tennis to the remotes of Gobi deserts and to the metropolises of London, Paris and New York. For the professionals, the size of the prize money, which is well over US$ 600 million a year is an enticing lure. Players' popularity is an avenue that enhances income during their careers and, after retirement, in other possible roles for the continuity of Tennis. Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe are still seen on the TV screen as the Captains of Laver-Cup teams, 30 years after their prime.

Events and hosting

One could assume without much hesitation that the passion for Tennis is still growing. One of the requirements of any Mega-City today, is to host a big Tennis event annually. It does not stop there. Cities in the subsequent tiers have scaleddown Tennis events. The clamouring for rights to hold ATP and WTA events is ever increasing.

Indian-Wells in USA was started in the middle of nowhere, and today is an attractive spring event in the Californian desert. At the time of its inception, no one but one man Charles Pasarell envisaged the outcome to be what it is today. Pasarell’s thinking outside the box worked and paid off.

There are new territories in Asia, Africa and South America which have the same aspiration as the Indian-Wells. Nations are waking up to hold Tennis events and be attractive to hotel trade, tourism, retail trade and symbol of being a part of the Tennis-Road. Even with a mega cost, behind the scenes, the number of cities which are working to acquire rights for WTA and ATP events is a long list.

Marco Polo made the first inroad to establish the global village with his Silk-Road. Tennis like many sports has created Tennis-Road - a sporting world without boundaries.

Exhibition Matches

The notion, sporting pageantry, is not new. Until into the '60s, professionals were not allowed into any of the famed Tennis events. Literally, they were begging and played Tennis in exhibition formats, sometimes even on suburban streets of USA and South Africa, for pittance. Seeing the greats of Tennis is on every man’s list of lifetime accomplishment. Visits to mega events is not easy and could be expensive.

Exhibition formats are an acceptable substitute. The last few years this segment has seen a growth in its changed formats. It came to being when 2 of the inter-nation Tennis flagship competitions which carried Tennis through last century, the Fed-Cup and the Davis-Cup, became events without stars. This year USA lost to Czech Republic in the Fed Cup final. Six good players were absent. They are Venus and Serena Williams, Sloane Stephens and Madison Keys. In the winning team of the Czech Republic, two top ten players. Karolina Pliskova and Petra Kvitova were not there.

Laver-Cup is linked to Roger Federer’s outfit and is giving another avenue to players. It is tie between Europe and the Americas. They are stress-free exhibition format matches to present good players from the 2 continents. It is new and being watched keenly as to how well it is going to work out. The women may start one soon. There is a whisper about Billie-Jean-King-Cup. With passion, profession, pride and pageant Tennis will be strong again in 2019.

George Paldano, Former int. player; Accredited Coach of German Federation; National coach Sri Lanka & Brunei, DavisCup, Federation Cup captain/coach-- contact 94 77 544 8880 geodano2015@gmail.com -