One-week Masters 1000 were so good. No dead time, big matches only. I understand the (money) logic behind the expanded format, but we really lost something on the way here.
Monte Carlo Masters made me fall in love with clay court tennis and It's still an amazing kickoff to the clay court season.
Do yourself a favor and watch the match highlights of:
2005 Federer vs Gasquet (oh, what potential we saw in this French kid but became a cautionary tale for future rounds of upstart youngsters)
2006 Federer vs Nadal (back when Masters finals were best of five!)
2007 Federer vs Nadal (an excellent sequel)
2008 Federer vs Nadal (compare with 2006 to see much closer to the baseline Nadal plays and how in control of the points he was as he perfected his clay court tactics)
I agree so much. These 2 week events are a drag to follow. Boring match-ups early on (that would be genuinly exciting and meaningful in a 250 tournament), and a loooong time to the final. If my favorite players are out early, I simply lose interest in the tournament. I mean, the final may be 5-6-7 days away.
Another drawback for the average and casually interested fan (those ATP should want to keep and/or attract), is that the scheduling becomes overwhelming. What day is what match, and at what time?This is moot in compact tournaments, where it is always the day after. Even for the hardcore fan, the scheduling for viewing becomes more messy and the tournament thus less attractive to follow. In particular when matches are on another continent. E.g., Indian Wells and Miami are tough to follow from Europe - a MONTH of matches during the night - for a month!
Quite the Argentine endorsement you got there. I’d frame that.
One-week Masters 1000 were so good. No dead time, big matches only. I understand the (money) logic behind the expanded format, but we really lost something on the way here.
Monte Carlo Masters made me fall in love with clay court tennis and It's still an amazing kickoff to the clay court season.
Do yourself a favor and watch the match highlights of:
2005 Federer vs Gasquet (oh, what potential we saw in this French kid but became a cautionary tale for future rounds of upstart youngsters)
2006 Federer vs Nadal (back when Masters finals were best of five!)
2007 Federer vs Nadal (an excellent sequel)
2008 Federer vs Nadal (compare with 2006 to see much closer to the baseline Nadal plays and how in control of the points he was as he perfected his clay court tactics)
I agree so much. These 2 week events are a drag to follow. Boring match-ups early on (that would be genuinly exciting and meaningful in a 250 tournament), and a loooong time to the final. If my favorite players are out early, I simply lose interest in the tournament. I mean, the final may be 5-6-7 days away.
Another drawback for the average and casually interested fan (those ATP should want to keep and/or attract), is that the scheduling becomes overwhelming. What day is what match, and at what time?This is moot in compact tournaments, where it is always the day after. Even for the hardcore fan, the scheduling for viewing becomes more messy and the tournament thus less attractive to follow. In particular when matches are on another continent. E.g., Indian Wells and Miami are tough to follow from Europe - a MONTH of matches during the night - for a month!