Hey guys, after the ridiculous events that happened in Las Vegas and what happened in Buenos Aires, JayJay from MTF.com decided to start a petition to end RR play at ATP tournaments. Please sign and spread the word!
From JayJay at MTF
If you agree with the sentiments I have expressed on this petition, please sign it and leave (if you wish) an appropriate comment (please keep it clean and constructive). I would like to get as many signatures as possible and send this to the relevant people before this "meeting" of the minds. Thanks for your time and hopefully support.
http://www.petitiononline.com/nomorerr/petition.html this will happen for sure! did you see this :
March 2, 2007
ATP STATEMENT REGARDING TENNIS CHANNEL OPEN
An incorrect variation of ATP rules resulted in the erroneous passage of James Blake into the quarterfinals of the Tennis Channel Open in Las Vegas, and according to the rules Evgeny Korolev will advance instead of Blake, the ATP announced today.
Blake had advanced after ATP Chairman and President Etienne de Villiers had been called in to discuss a controversial end to the Blake/Korolev/Juan Martin del Potro group. Blake needed to complete his match, beat del Potro in straight sets and concede five games or less. Blake was leading 6-1, 3-1 when del Potro retired from the match with breathing problems.
The relevant rule states that an incomplete match shall not count as a match played for the retiring player. This eliminated del Potro based on the tiebreak procedure for greatest number of completed matches and left only Blake and Korolev tied with 1-1 records. Therefore, under ATP rules Korolev should have advanced having beaten Blake in their round robin encounter.
The same ATP Rulebook prevents the ATP Chairman and President or any ATP staff member from making a judgment call on the rules, as no variation can be implemented without ATP Board approval. The rules state that the final decision at a tournament rests solely with the ATP Supervisor.
"I was contacted late at night my time and did not fully understand the issues being discussed and I made a judgment call on what seemed fair. However I understand that judgment calls are not part of the rule book and I must abide by the rules, as must everybody else in the circumstance," de Villiers said.
‘This is of course an unpleasant situation for all involved, but we must abide strictly by the rules. I apologize to James for giving false hope and to Evgeny for the confusion. I said we would be prepared to make mistakes but that we would reverse them if necessary and learn from them."
"I hope that it is recognized that I acted in good faith and my intentions were to do the right thing and see fairness prevail. Clearly, I was wrong to intervene. I have always maintained that we should experiment with new and different ideas and it was with this in mind that I made what I thought was a fair call."
"I regret that I got involved, that I overruled a Supervisor and I regret this storm in a teacup," said de Villiers.
"What this situation and a somewhat similar confusing end to a group result in Buenos Aires have shown is that the experiment has brought a sharp focus onto specific flaws involved with round robin competition and the review of the format and the decision as to whether to continue at all, will now be brought forward."
The experiment with round robin play, inspired and supported by research that showed strong support for the format by fans, was to have involved 12 - 13 tournaments over the entire 2007 ATP season.
"Discussions with ATP Board members and other parties have already started and the future of round robin play has now been put on the agenda for the ATP Board meeting, starting in Miami on March 22," de Villiers said.
Round Robin ended!! :D
ATP Ends Round Robin Experiment
The ATP Board has voted to end the experimentation with round robin formats on the ATP tour, it was announced today. The remaining events who had initially volunteered for the round robin format will now revert to the original knock out competition.
The ATP had begun testing several versions of the format at lower level events this year following initial research that indicated it could be a measure to provide significant growth to the game.
The research showed it was popular among casual fans because it gave them more opportunity to see their local and favorite players than in a traditional knockout format. The format also had the added benefit of allowing tournaments to showcase their marquee players deeper into the tournament week and made TV scheduling of matches easier and more promotable.
However, the carefully monitored testing at the five test case events this year raised a number of concerns and weaknesses that were not apparent from desk research. Firstly, the 32 hybrid format caused confusion; second, resolving who would progress from the round robin stage with 3 men groups was often complicated; and third, sections of the media had difficulty in reporting round robin and consequently fans not at the event had difficultly in following early results. Finally, and significantly, no format or rule could address the overwhelming player concern that their destiny was not in their own hands as a result of dead matches or withdrawals.
The ATP Board considered all the research and analysis gathered during the experiment both from outside research agencies and tournament volunteers and concluded while there was a considerable amount of encouraging data, in the end the negatives outweighed the positives.
“The ATP is determined to be fact based, and not opinion led. We’re committed to a philosophy of ‘do it, try it, fix it or lose it,’ with initiatives that could grow our sport,” said ATP Chairman and President Etienne de Villiers. “We take all stakeholders into account, especially our players and tournaments, when we make decisions but will always have a fan focus.”
“It was a good experiment and we learned a lot from it. Some experiments will work and others won’t, but we will keep trying to find new and better ways of growing the appeal of men’s professional tennis,” de Villiers said.
From ATP tennis site.
oh that's good. Round Robin was just way too confusing. it's alright at the end of the year tournament, since there are only eight players, but otherwise, it was too much of a hassel to try and figure it out.