Plans to make tennis matches more friendly for broadcasters has been sharply criticised by nine-time French Open champion Rafael Nadal.
Last week WTA CEO Steve Simon talked about the possibility of shortening matches in order to make them more TV-friendly. Amongst the ideas mentioned by Simon during a press conference in Wuhan, China was the introduction of no-ad scoring and a super tiebreak, where the final set would be decided by the first person to reach ten points.
“The attention spans of the audience today is shrinking,” he told Sport 360. “Everybody wants it in very short nuggets, and to see somebody sit for two to three hours and watch anything anymore is getting harder and harder.”
The viewpoint of the former collegiate tennis player has been criticised by Nadal, who himself played in the longest Grand Slam final of the Open Era. The Spaniard has argued that long and dramatic matches are ones that stay in the memory of sport. At last week’s Wuhan Open, Petra Kvitova’s three-hour-and-20-minute win over Angelique Kerber was one of the most talked about matches.
“All the sports needs to improve and adapt to the new things. But I am not sure if that’s the way — to make the matches quicker,” Nadal said.
“You need to put everything together to create a great show, to create a show (so) that the people emotionally feel involved in the match.”
“But I am just a player,” added the 14-time Grand Slam champion.
Nadal’s comments come as he prepares for the China Open in Beijing this week where he will be the second seed. The world number four will be bidding to win his first title since returning to the tour from a wrist injury in August. Due to the issue, Beijing will be Nadal’s fourth ATP tournament since May. Regardless of his recent troubles, the 30-year-old is proud of his comeback to the tour.
“I should be happy the way I came back after the injury. I played a great Olympic Games, and I played a good US Open. I lost a match against a very good player, but a match that I had a big chance to win,” he said.
In the first round of the China Open, Nadal will play Paolo Lorenzi. Earlier this year, he defeated the Italian in straight sets at the Buenos Aires Open in Argentina.
