I'm convinced. The tennis season is way too long. Just like basketball, hockey, and baseball (the World Series hasn't even started yet and it's the end of October) tennis has become just another drawn out non-spectacle.
Given the schedule changes made by the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, the women's season is a bit shorter. Maybe not enough. While I am thrilled beyond belief that Caroline Wozniacki will end the season as the world's number one, and that Kim Clijsters has again won the U.S. Open, the women's tour is limping to the season ending championships. Serena Williams is out for the rest of the season, and most of the women's field is exhausted. The 2010 Open looked more like a medical tape and flex bandage fashion show than anything else.
The season-ending WTA Championships in Doha, Qatar are just one week away. It is clear that, for the most part, no one probably knows that other than the die-hard women's tennis fan. Even more so is the Commonwealth Bank Tournament of Champions, the tournament specifically setup as a second-tier playoff to showcase the up-and-coming stars. That will begin in November.
I was fortunate to be able to watch live via satellite the Roger Federer/Novak Djokovic match, as well as Andy Murray's straight set victory over Federer in the final of the ATP Masters tournament in Beijing. Here you had three of the top four men playing until the end of the tournament, yet even the enthusiastic Chinese crowd could not fill up the stadium, nor make enough noise on any night. The Federer/Djokovic match had even more competition, as the NBA preseason was being played in Beijing, as well, and at the same time. There was much more coverage of the Nets/Rockets game both here and in Asia, and to top it off, the basketball arena was packed. Even in the emerging market that is Asia, tennis could not compete.
Add to all of this the extension of the baseball season and the beginning of the heart of the American football season, throw in a little hockey, and also NCAA basketball and football, and tennis just gets lost in the mix. How can any sport compete with important college football games on Saturday and professional football games on Sunday? How can the WTA Tour Championships and Tournament of Champions even begin to compete with the World Series? The ATP World Tour Finals will conclude on Thanksgiving weekend.
I know, tennis is a world sport. True, but the majority of the big money in tennis still comes from the American economy and U.S. television revenue. Would you get up at 6 AM on Thanksgiving Day to watch Francesca Schiavone play Vera Zvonareva? Thought so.
The tennis year used to be nice and compact. The season would begin with the Australian and Malaysian tour, concluding with the Aussie Open. Then a short break, and on to Europe for the clay court season, its highlight, of course, being the red clay at Roland Garros. Then the summer grass court season, beginning in Queens Club, quickly jumping to Wimbledon, then off to the U.S. with the American summer tour, ending at the U.S. Open. After that, the season would be done with the exception of exhibitions, which many players did for extra cash in the offseason and also acted as major public relations with the local fans. The three-month gap with almost no tennis actually made you want to see it more.
The U.S. Open is the perfect culmination of the tennis season. It is one of the four major tournaments. It is played in the best city on earth. It happens in a time of year where there are few, if any, other major sporting events that coincide. The weather is usually still tennis-friendly, and there is a finality to the end of the tournament. The extension of the tennis season into late November is akin to the Pro Bowl being played after the Super Bowl. Basically, no one really cares because the season for them ended with the champion being crowned.
Tennis is too long. The players are burning themselves up and limp into the final month of the tournament year. They travel to too many places at the end of the year that are not media-friendly for the American or European fans who comprise most of the base. There are too many competing major sports and sporting events that consume all the media time after the summer ends.
It's time professional tennis really took a look at when the season is over. For me, I prefer it to end in the Big Apple and mot end with a big piece of apple pie to go with my turkey.
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