The poor organization at the U.S. Open was the end of the line for many of the top players. For the fourth year in succession, the men's final was held over until the third Monday, and all it did was murky the USTA's reputation even further. They would later be slated for the poor way in which they handled Serena Williams' outburst, and that didn't do them any good either.
The USTA can't control the rain, but they can change their scheduling, and they can provide facilities to help deal with the rain. They can't use rain as an excuse. Take Wimbledon as an example.
Britain is typically wetter than the U.S. (although the states are more prone to torrential rain), and it has rained consistently at Wimbledon for almost every year in living memory. But it is incredibly rare for play to be held over to a third Monday. In fact, it is more impressive, in that most years, the organizers have to work without the middle Sunday, meaning that usually play is restricted to just 13 days, instead of the 15 days at Flushing Meadows.
It may sound like I'm just flogging a dead horse, but there have to be significant changes made.
Andy Roddick, Rafael Nadal, and Andy Murray have all expressed their feelings on the matter of being sent out in the wet conditions. All were concerned about player safety and felt they weren't being protected by tournament officials, and although Roddick may have crossed a line with his rude and arrogant behavior towards officials, he had a point.
Their incompetence was almost beyond belief. They tried dabbing up water seeping up from underneath the courts with a towel, hovering a split patch on the court, and the lowest of the low was when one official jogged onto court with a roll of gaffer tape. I mean, what was that going to do?
What might have happened next? PVA Glue? Some good old Pritt Stick? Perhaps they would invest in a needle and threat and sow the court back to health? Or would a better use of time and money have been to simply stick up a "wet floor" sign and let them get on with play?
Why did the officials resort to such ludicrous methods when the answer was staring them in the face? The answer was that changes should have been made years ago. One year with a third Monday, understandable; two years, unfortunate; three is ridiculous and four is unacceptable.
More recently, news has come to light that the USTA are seriously considering changing the scheduling of the tournament so that the men's final will be held — regardless of whether it rains or not — on the third Monday. This is not fixing the problem! It is simply making the mistakes of the past four years official. "We can't cope with the rain, so let's just move the men's final to Monday permanently — it'll save us further embarrassment in the long run." Well, it won't. And it simply declares the organization an utter shambles. There were, and still are, solutions available.
Why aren't there covers for the courts when it rains? Yes, there is a drainage system, but apparently it can't cope with very much water. Surely when it rains, or light rain takes a turn for the worse, covers can be dragged across the court in the same way they are at Roland Garros and at Wimbledon. Then when the rain ceases, the courts are dry or simply need a quick wipe, and the players can be sent on without too much fuss. This would have allowed hours and hours more time for matches this year and it should have been implemented.
And what about the questions surrounding a roof on Arthur Ashe? Why isn't there one? Well, that's a good questions, and the answer is that there will be. Jeff Tarango, former player and USTA official, confirmed there are plans for a roof on Arthur Ashe, and that they are in advanced stages. The USTA, on the other hand, claim there are no plans, and deny Tarango has any inside knowledge.
But this begs the question, if there aren't plans, why not? And if there are, why lie? Surely it makes matters worse, because near enough everyone wants to see a roof, and they've got the funds for it.
This year's U.S. Open fiasco was not so significant that it caused the players to see for the first time that changes must be made; it was merely a catalyst for the events that followed, or will soon follow.
Some of the top players, Nadal in particular, have been grumbling for some time about the crammed nature of the schedule.
For some players, it is not a problem, because they will be unlikely to make it past the second or third round of a tournament, and so they have plenty of time to recover and train for upcoming matches, but if you're right at the top of the game, consistently making quarters, semis, and finals, you're playing more matches than other people, week in, week out, and it can really wear your body down.
Nadal's Achilles heel has always been the clay court season, with back-to-back tournaments from Monte Carlo all the way to Paris, with hardly a week's break. That's five tournaments in seven weeks, three of them compulsory, another his home tournament, and the fifth worth 1,000 ranking points. So he doesn't have much choice.
The wearing down of the body can be shown most recently by Novak Djokovic, who has a stunning record this year — he's played 67 matches this year and has only lost 3 times. The two most recent losses were not completed matches, as he had to retire injured due to the sheer volume of matches played over a short period of time.
Now, Andy Murray claims players could strike over the harsh scheduling, and that this is not his voice, and that it is no hollow threat, either. There are many players who are prepared to take strike action, and if they did, it could be cataclysmic for the tennis world. Big names pulling out of tournaments mean fewer spectators and less revenue and that is not something tournament directors want.
So players have been muttering amongst themselves for some time and little good has been said. The tournament directors at Shanghai said they would get the players together for a conference and see what needed to be done to improve the tour. Whether or not this happened is yet to be seen, but it is doubtful — surely they would wait for Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer, neither of whom attended the tournament.
But one thing is for sure, now the players are coming together in unity, there will be some changes to the tour. It might not be this year of even 2012, but change is coming and the world of tennis will soon usher in a new order, where the players are more content, and — more importantly — not battling injuries.
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