123. SPARE A THOUGHT

I have been travelling on the pro tour for a long time now and it never ceases to amaze me how little consideration appears to be given to the well being of the players and the ease of logistics when the tennis governing bodies (the WTA, ATP, ITF etc) and the tournament organisers (the clubs, host venues etc) are planning their events.

In particular I am referring to the start and end dates of tournaments and the amount of time given to players’ recovery and their ability to get from one venue to the next. So little consideration seems to be given to the fact that the players have to get from one place to another, within a matter of hours in some cases, and that they need sufficient time to recover if they are to be able to perform at their best only a day or so later. This is especially relevant to players who make it deep into a draw (to the semi final or final) and who are playing again the following week.

The start and end days of tournaments on the tour vary week in, week out and can be different on the different tours. For example, on the ITF tour, some tournaments start their qualifying events on a Saturday (sign in Friday night); whilst others start on a Sunday (or in rarer cases, on a Monday). Doubles and main draw singles events on the ITF tour typically start on a Tuesday and they can end on Friday (doubles), Saturday or Sunday.

On the WTA tour, it is often different. The singles qualifying event will typically start on Saturday or Sunday, with the first round main draw singles matches being held on Monday and Tuesday. The doubles events usually commence on Monday. In this instance the first round singles matches are split over Monday and Tuesday whilst the first round doubles matches are held on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. The finals of each discipline are typically staged on Saturday or Sunday.

The issues that arise however are two fold. Firstly how does a player who has gone deep in the doubles draw (to the final for example) get to the next event in time for the start of the qualifying singles if the doubles final is being held on the Sunday or late on the Saturday? Similarly, how does a singles player who has made it to the final (which has been scheduled for 5.30pm on the Sunday), get to the next tournament and be in a fit state to play on the Monday or Tuesday?

The last two weeks have been a case in point for these issues. My player played the doubles at the WTA125 in Contrexeville, France. She and her partner played their semi final on the Friday (as did the other semi finalists) but the final was not scheduled for the next day, instead it was scheduled for Sunday. Now the doubles event for the next tournament, the WTA250 in Iasi, Romania, started on Monday – less than 24 hours after the start of the doubles final in France (the previous week in competition terms). All four players in the doubles final in France were playing this next event but the issue was, how do they get from Contrexeville in France (which is in the middle of nowhere) to Iasi, Romania in time for the start of the next tournament? Contrexeville does not have an airport and is hours from any major transportation hub so the journey to Iasi involved not only a plane but also trains, cars and buses. It wasn’t a ‘short hop’ that’s for sure and with no 100% guarantee that the players were not going to be asked to play their first round match on Monday or Tuesday this created some unnecessary stress. In this instance, the players had been told that a Tuesday start was likely but you can never be sure!

The second issue was that the doubles final in Contrexeville being held on the Sunday, precluded any of the finalists from signing in for the singles qualifying event in Iasi, which also started on Sunday – tough for those players who are trying to climb the rankings in both singles and doubles as the singles in this instance had to be sacrificed. Had the doubles final been scheduled to be played on the Saturday (the day after the semi finals) then this might have been possible (although still challenging). More simple though would have been for the organisers to stage the doubles final on the Friday (and the preceding rounds a day earlier) – as per the majority of the pro level tournaments held in France, especially as the overall competition itself started on the Monday and the doubles was only an 8 pair event (meaning it started with the quarter finals). There was plenty of time (and court space) to get all the matches played in five days.

On a similar vein, the WTA singles final in Iasi, Romania was held at 5.30pm on Sunday. The events this following week were to be in Prague, Czech Republic and Palermo, Italy. Now if you have ever tried to get out of Iasi you will know that it’s not easy, so if either of the finalists were due to play in either of these next two events (which they were) then they faced a challenge to get to the next venue in time for the start of the singles events. To get to either venue involved two flights – and these were later on in the day meaning a late night arrival so little time to recover and re-group before the first match. This begs the question, why not finish all singles tournaments on Saturdays so giving the players time on Sunday to travel and relax a little? The outcome was that one of the finalists in Iasi had to withdraw from her next event as she either could not get to the next event on time with sufficient recovery, or she was not physically able to compete again so soon after the final. How often do we see players who make a final or win an tournament, subsequently go out in the first round of the next event? Could this be one of the reasons why?

This kind of tournament scheduling really does beg the question why there are not set days for the start of qualifying, main draw and finals at all tournaments that would enable players to move less stressfully between competitions and without players having to forfeit certain events? Why not make all doubles finals on Fridays for example, and all singles finals on Saturdays, with Sundays being kept free for travel/recovery? I guess the organisers would say it’s down to the things like the number of courts available etc and a need to do what is best for spectators but surely the needs/well being of the players is also important? Maybe the tournament organisers and the tennis governing bodies need to communicate more with each other to ensure overlaps are kept to a minimum, or is that too much to ask?

#realitytennis

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