2014-MEN’S WORLD TOUR FINALS-LONDON ATP’s ‘jewel in the crown’
It has been an amazing year of Men’s Tennis as the season comes to an end. Men’s Association of Tennis Professionals [ATP] events in the past four decades have made Tennis a very popular and a visible sport worldwide. Best Tennis players of today are house-hold names and often spoken about personalities at dinner.
The structure ATP has created, as the annual calendar, with multi-tier events feeding into a single-ranking- system is an ingenious mechanic in sports management. Effects of these have made Tennis stand out in popularity and in the exhibition of the game among the best global sports. Even the ATP’s
Under-21 ranking is extracted from the single open-ranking events which ATP maintains and is not from isolated age group events. This total integration has raised the global Tennis standard, development of the game and appeal to spectators and fans. The year-end London World Tour Finals starting on the 9th of November is the ‘jewel in the crown’ from ATP. Events structure and players
ATP calendar has 66 events in its eleven-month worldwide schedule. They are in four tiers with ranking points given to players according to their status. At the top are the four grand slam events. This year, each had nearly fifteen million dollars as prize money and the biggest ranking points to players. Next are the ATP 1000 Masters-Series with over two million dollars each, followed by the ATP 500 series with one million dollars each and the ATP 250 series with up to half a million dollars each. In total, I believe the ATP had prize money closer to one hundred and fifty million dollars in 2014.
The ATP annual events are tightly scheduled to give critical long breaks to players for recuperation from November. The London event is the World-Tour finals with six and half million as prize money and is closed only to the top eight players in the world ranking.
ATP events have players from all five continents and at present, European players are not only dominating the elite positions but also in numbers. According to regulation, a player has to be 15 years of age to participate. The ATP respects players’ independence and permits individuals to enter ATP events without their national association’s or other approvals. This player independence has opened the doors to many who have been restricted in the past. ATP rankings
The much venerated ATP rankings go up to 1500 based on the points offered to players for their performance in each event. Being in it has a lifelong positive impact on individuals. Its influence opens many doors to players after their competitive career. Each of the 66 events has a cut off mark for direct entry into the main draw and another for the qualification rounds. For example, for the Wimbledon Championships in England which has 132 in the main draw, the cut-off mark for direct entry is around 160th ranking position. There is also entry into the main draw through qualification rounds and by wild-cards. It is the privilege of the organizing committee of the event to give wild-card entry to players of their choice.
As one could see the mechanics are not simple but over forty years, the ATP has put up a very credible system and is maintaining the standards well. Players are subjected to rules and disciplinary action for misconduct. Drug abuse is another area where advice is given to players and control tests are a regularly feature to enforce drug ban. Top eight and London draw
Every player in the top eight of the 2014 ranking has achieved something significant. Novak Djokovic is currently number one, has five major titles and over 10,000 ranking points.
The ‘ever green’ Swiss, Roger Federer whom many thought should call it a day, is surprising everyone being the challenger to the number one position in 2014. His ‘late- spring’ performance at an age over 30 will be a recallable history in the future. Points gained from the London event by these top two players could decide as to who will be number one in 2014. Spaniard, Rafael Nadal is ranked three. Due to recent surgery he has withdrawn from the London event, which in turn is permitting 9th ranked US-Open Champion Croatia’s Marin Cilic as a ‘first timer’ into the World Tour finals.
The other five in London are: Switzerland’s Stanislas Wawrinka, winner of Australian - Open grand slam.
Japan’s Kei Nishikori, the first Asian to be among the top eight in the ‘Open-era’ with admirable number of titles.
Scotland’s Andy Murray with a lean record compared to his 2013 performance.
Czech Republic’s Tomas Berdych -- with only two titles but, a steady overall performance.
Canada’s Milos Raonic who came up with some of the best results this year including a win against Roger Federer in ParisOpen two weeks ago.
Raonic and the young lady Eugenie Bouchard who is WTA’s under 21 number one, has made Canada famous for Tennis.
In London, World-Tour finals format has placed the eight players in two groups for the early round robin format matches. Lesson from ATP U-21 rankings
This is an example from ATP which all the countries, players and parents can learn from. That is, extracting the age group rankings from the Open-Events and not from isolated age group events. No one suffers more than the ‘players’ themselves in ‘development’ and in ‘their career’ from the folly of age group event participation.
As parents, it is advisable to restrict your children being exposed to this ‘age group success folly’. ATP matures its younger players better and faster, making them play in Open events. After all, no one remains under 18 or 21 forever. The current number one in the ATP under 21 ranking is the Austrian Dominic Thiem. His ranking of 39 in the ATP ranking is giving him this position. Australian Nick Kyrgios is number two, being 50 in the ATP ranking. This example is the road for better Tennis standard even in Sri Lanka. Tennis in London
ATP and its road-map is the future of Men’s global Tennis. The system is realistic, progressive and presents Tennis as an interesting and career-based sporting pursuit. London will be enjoyable and educational to everyone and not only to the Tennis enthusiasts. The eight players have a class of their own. The personalities and the skill levels to play Tennis were the best in 2014.
Running rugby is what a spectator wants to see. It is a skillful style of play where you support the ball carrier and keep the ball moving in preference to rucking, mauling and kicking for position.
That is something we don’t see often in the game here other than in sevens. Rugby is about playing as a team. Running rugby is a style played by teams of fit and skillful players. Mark Ella in his chapter on "The Philosophy of Attack" explains how attacking plays are used to create uncertainty and cause defenders to hesitate. “The simplest way of creating uncertainty is by deception. You have to make the defending team believe, or at least suspect, that you are going to do one thing, when your intention is to do another”. Running rugby requires skills in Passing catching and Support skills. The ability to put yourself in the place you can be most useful at exactly the right moment, running at the correct angle and the correct speed requires a great deal of practice. This also requires a Fit mobile set of forwards to use the ball.
The above thoughts came to my mind as I watched the domestic league 2014 start off last week. Most comments were that this was the first week and one cannot expect running Rugby. The expectation that a spectator would have when he takes time off his nap is to enjoy a game of rugby.
If you keep the running passing as well as evasive skills to the foreigners in your team one cannot expect running rugby. It will be one or two running, looking to score while others don’t row. Police led 28 points to 22 over Havelock’s while the Fullback of Fijian background kept grounding the ball for a hat-trick of tries. Once he left the field early in the second half the rowing continued but they seemed to lack the coxswain and lost direction to the try line and went down to Havelock’s by 48 points to 28.
Navy got the better of Hambantota Sharks and with key positions covered with new recruitment they will be a top contender this season and are being ably steered in this direction. Kandy played well as a unit to win 78 to 9 while they made the backs work to the goal line and make holes in the Air Force side which look like a school boy team. Air Force continues with its local only policy and will find it tough as the season progress.
CR who was led 15 to 21 by the Army at half time managed to come back strong and win 28 points to 21. Again the Army failed to capitalise on the lead they took at half time and did not have the power of their foreign players around whom they could fashion a win.
The first week saw Kandy, Navy, Havelock’s and CR stay unbeaten while CH received a bye. Kandy and Navy playing more professionally and Havelock’s showed that they have the Potential to stay focused as shown by their performance in the second half seem a notch ahead among the teams that played on the week end. CR though winning has to do some soul searching if they are to keep up at the top.
This being the scene in rugby I thought I should share some thoughts from article I read titled “A rowing team also needs a Leader.” This analogy reflects on companies which are hierarchical and focusing on ‘strategy talk’ but cannot win due to less focus on execution. This same thinking can be applied to rugby playing clubs who try all else rather than focus on the execution and synchronised actions required to win. In