The ATP-ITF-WTA mountain has brought forth something far bulkier than a mouse. Starting August 23, a pair of Slams and a trifecta of Master 1000 tournaments will take place over a seven-week span, hoping that Covid-19 will not strike again – an unprecedented bonanza for tennis-starved fans, even if the two Slams were to be played with a personnel shortage.
Looking at historical precedents, 79 of the men’s Top 100 boycotted Wimbledon in 1973 in solidarity with Nikki Pilic (despite Stan Smith admitting that he wasn’t the most popular athlete on tour), but the Championships didn’t really suffer from the blow, and Jan Kodes, that year’s winner, never saw his status as a Slam champion diminished in the slightest – it should be remembered that the Czech won a pair of French Open titles and reached two more finals at Forest Hills, so his accomplishments can’t really be disputed.
Roland Garros is currently looking poised for a more competitive field, since it will take place a month later and since 75% of the ATP Top 100 and 70% of the WTA Top 30 spawns from Europe. The US Open, on the other hand, could benefit from Cincinnati being moved to Flushing Meadows, creating a three-week barrage of points and money not to be easily relinquished.
The question is: how many players will be able to scratch their way through seven weeks at such a high level, four of which laden with five-setters, all the while crossing the Atlantic halfway through and living in unfamiliar conditions? The risk of injuries to multiple players is real. The necessity to start earning again will push many to go all the way, but it will also force others to skip a few gigs to maximise their winning chances.
Each of the involved tournaments were desperate to host their respective events, lest a financial disaster might happen. Rome is the ultimate example: Angelo Binaghi, the president of the Italian federation, claimed multiple times that he was willing to move the tournament to other cities and on different surfaces just to make it happen – he deserves understanding, as do all the other promoters and owners.
Wimbledon was insured, while everybody else was not. However, the AELTC is just short of being a charity, since most of its revenue goes to the LTA, and thus it’s far easier to invest for a company whose first objective isn’t necessarily to make money, while other owners, like Madrid’s Ion Tiriac, can’t afford to be so magnanimous with their investments, and the same goes for the Italian and French federations.
The US Open (and the New York Times) immediately highlighted that Serena Williams is on board, and enthusiastically so. After losing four Slam finals, mostly as the favourite and without winning a single set – Patrick Mouratoglou explained some of the issues she’s faced – Serena’s chase for her 24th title, which would put her on par with Margaret Court, will be the leitmotif of the tournament, provided she goes far.
However, new tournament director Stacey Allaster is having to rely on the support of the entire USTA to quell the doubts of European top draws like Nadal, Djokovic, and Halep. Their misgivings are probably the reason behind the update in the rule concerning the number of staff members that the players will be allowed to take with them to the Big Apple – despite rumours of just a person being allowed, the final amount was set at three. Other concessions involve the possibility for the wealthiest to rent a flat near Corona Park instead of being confined to the JFK bubble. I can only marvel at who will be tasked to check that the players don’t go clubbing, given the precedent set in Belgrade last weekend.
We shouldn’t be surprised that the US ultimately heeded to the call of money. The best players presented heavy demands to enter the draw, and they got all they asked for.
The whole testing machine is still to be finalised, especially in terms of frequency – I asked a question on the matter during the USTA press conference on Wednesday, but it’s all still up in the air. Every official is calling on the players’ sense of responsibility but, judging from the latest exhibition tournaments, I’m not sure many actually do have one.
Moving on to the lower-ranked players, the US Open has decided to devolve $6.6 million to both tours (3.3 each), which will then spend them however they want, either to compensate the players who were damaged by the cancellation of the qualifiers, or to organise and/or support a few ATP Challengers and WTA Internationals.
The US Open will guarantee a spot in the draw to the top-ranked 120 players. Federer aside, everybody else should be game: it’s rather unlikely that dozens of clay specialists might decide to skip the hardcourt season to focus on the Madrid-Rome-Paris trio, or that a similar amount is too scared to play. Those who’ll make it to the later stages in New York might elect to skip Madrid, sure, but those who are all but certain to bow out early will definitely participate in both.
Life is going to be hard for those who won’t make the main draws of the Slams. After four months of inactivity, these players will be forced to stay put even longer, since the Challengers’ schedule is still scrambled. Not just that: while the early rumours pointed to the tours being active in December, that now no longer seems to be the case. On paper, something could be done after August 14, perhaps a $150k could be organised in Orlando during the Washington week…
Even if it were possible to plan a few Challengers, though, these would be so few that no players with a lower rank than 180 would be able to break in before the cut-off. In addition, we need to remember that only the winners of such events make relevant money, while entering the main draw of a Slam automatically means $50k, they could make twice as much, should they win their first-round match – that’s without speaking of the different standings of these achievements. Anyway, the bottom-line is that the omens aren’t great for those who are ranked outside the Top 200.
As largely expected, business won, even though the ATP top brass somewhat “pretended” to have chosen one of two options during last week’s conference call in order to appease the players ranked between the 200th and the 400th spot, when, in realty, the other has never been viable, e.g. the possibility to cancel Cincinnati and play the usual three qualifying rounds in New York. The first option meant that the same players would feature in both events, while the second meant throwing a bone to some players ranked outside the upper echelon of the sport.
The ATP picked the former exclusively for financial reasons, as a Master 1000 event means TV rights, sponsorships, and money, while the qualies’ revenues are usually non-existent. Moreover, a few of the top dogs (Shapovalov among them) began to complain about having to debut in a five-set format, and the ATP didn’t miss the chance to placate them, while de facto throwing everyone else under the bus. Sure, the US Open offered a lump sum as compensation, but who knows how it will be spent and according to what criteria.
The point system is being scorched as well, because of all its contradictions and idiosyncrasies. It would be just right for a player to have a full year to defend or improve on its previous results (therefore defending and improving on his/her own revenue), but now someone like Gianluca Mager, who scored big in February, will only have the months spanning from August to January to benefit from his wins, while the Fognini’s of this world, who built their ranking in 2019, will keep their spot until the end of 2020 and all the way to April 2021 – quite a difference between 5 and 16 months. To be clear, however, there still is no clarity on how the rankings will be assessed and when the points will be “thawed”.
I will finish by pointing out the Paris Master 1000 tournament is currently slated to go ahead between November 1 and 8, about three weeks after the end of the French Open. In the same city. With the same players. Money goes to money, an old truth that I still have to see refuted.
