Wednesday, March 03, 2010

Homogenisation of the ATP


Homogenisation of the ATP

Butch Buchholz and sidekicks

This entry was bought on by the organisers of the Buenos Aires event having a hairbrained scheme of changing the surface from clay to hardcourt for the tournament.

Lets examine the differing factors. Martin Jaite former top 10 player and coach of Gaston Gaudio and David Nalbandian who is the tournament director for the event. As an individual he has done a lot for Argentine tennis and building up the Buenos Aires event into one of the best IS (International Series) events on tour, there will be no use of the 250, 500 or 1000 series nonsense in here.

Then there is Butch Buchholz who actually owns the licence to the event. Thanks to the man known as Felipe for providing the translations of this guy's words that were said to an Argentine paper which is pushing the agenda of Buchholz to attempt to get the surface to change to hardcourt. Don't forget he is the director and the owner of the TMS Miami and keeps saying bullshit that Argentina deserves a Masters series event, not that they don't deserve one, it's the agenda behind it.

He comes out and says that he is not against claycourt tennis, yet hardcourts are the way to go .
http://www.menstennisforums.com/showpost.php?p=9683015&postcount=110

The reason for this is simple, pure profiteering as the cost and maintenance of hardcourts is a lot cheaper than the clay. The fact he is a TD of Miami and is pushing for hardcourts to be played in Bs As, this does not suggest that he actually cares about tennis in Argentina, which he wouldn't as his first motive is to make profit and this is the best way for him to do so.

Jaite should have learned his lesson already after the Round Robin fiasco that he forced up on the Buenos Aires event which was one of the most farcical tournaments and this says quite a bit when concerning the ATP. He built the event up from very difficult times which including not paying appearance money, but they have been able to do that for a while now, once they got the tournament back on track. He more than anyone should know that there needs to be careful consideration before adopting the latest gimmick in addition to the rich tennis history in Argentina which was built up on the clay.

The tennis tradition in Argentina was built on Guillermo Vilas and this can't be overstated and Jaite was one of them as well that was inspired by Vilas. The majority of the courts in the country are on clay and the passionate fans like tennis, especially on clay. As Buchholz is an outsider who just owns the licence and has no understanding of Argentine tennis, this is where Jaite has to step up to the plate, but it seems he is more interested in his cut of the cake.

Thinking about a possible change to hardcourts, well they want to move the event to the Parque Roca, where they have held Davis Cup and as it's a bigger venue and the cost is less to install hardcourts. It seems like they are wanting to cater to Juan Martin del Potro, who won't play his home event as it's on clay, but is more likely to do so if played on hardcourt. No player is bigger than the game and that is anywhere in the world. Next of all, if the change goes ahead then it will just become another meaningless Mickey Mouse hardcourt event for the simple reason why would the European players who prefer the clay travel to another continent when they can play in Europe on the same surface or play a European challenger if they were on the border of direct entry of the Buenos Aires event, as it would save them on expenses.

The spin campaign is pretty impressive and the majority of local fans like the international players who are treated well for the most part, but the local crowds want to see their players battling it out on the surface that they play on themselves. What are they going to use to get these players who don't normally play in Argentina to get them there. Hey! we have fantastic beef and you can have free asado everyday and as many hot women in Buenos Aires as possible. So, if they plan to get del Potro he is not going to play for free, there isn't going to be much in the pie for the rest of the players that they are allegedly negotiating with depending on the surface change.

This leads onto the next point, the amount of IS events that are being reduced to 28 player draws. The week before a Slam it's understandable that there is a 28 player draw. Other than that, then it just becomes a Mickey Mouse event, not that much different from playing local league tennis. This is a problem with the structure of the ATP as it's made up of the players and tournament directors, each with their own particular interests and not prepared to work together. The tournaments that have 28 player draws are just protecting top players who will have had the huge guarantees to play at these events, so they only play 4 matches to win the event, while the others have to play 5 to win the event. Not even the WTA has as many 28 player draws as the ATP have these days. What are the representatives of the Player Council doing and are they an accurate representation of the players as a union or just the interests of the top players and what happens to the others is like 10 alcoholics fighting over the last beer.

Hopefully the Player Council shows some testicular fortitude and reject the surface change of Buenos Aires, though with the track record of the ATP it is not very likely that there will be a sensible and well thought out decision will be made. Tennis is a wonderful sport and yes it should adapt when necessary to further development, though it's hard to be positive about the ATP in its current formation. The diversity of skills required to do well on the different surfaces has been virtually lost, as carpet doesn't exist on the tour anymore, the grass season is minimal in length, the overall season is too long and hardcourts dominating the main tour to the point of tedium.

This is an organisation that refused to listen to the fans and masses about Round Robin, by deliberately misleading the public when they were surveying them as to whether they wanted to see the format, by asking leading questions to a certain answer. Always paying lip service about making adjustments to the calendar but in reality doing a lot of nothing.