[ATP Tour] XLXIV

twitter:

dkaplanSBJ twitterde op vrijdag 18-11-2011 om 21:09:12 @OmItOut Federer, I am told, simply believes Krajicek not qualified for post. Nadal evidently disagrees. reageer retweet

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Viewpoint: Rankings should reflect one year, not two

In the corridors of power at the O2 Arena—home of the approaching ATP World Tour Finals—and hotels in central London, there is chatter going on about changing the method of calculating the men's rankings, going from a one-year/12-month cycle of results to a two-year/24-month cycle.

Rafael Nadal, along with other top players, is a strong advocate of changing the rankings, while Roger Federer is not at all anxious to break with the traditional way that things are done, an impeccable source indicated.

The matter came to light during this year’s French Open when Nadal, then the world No. 1, championed the idea of expanding the results period used to determine the rankings as a way to help prolong the careers of the top players. It would tie in with the way professional golf established its rankings, which is over a two-year period, with the most recent year’s worth of results weighed more highly than the preceding year’s.

Nadal was quoted in a wire story last May as saying, “to have a longer career (the solution) is to have two years of ranking. Not only one year.” He was partly relating that to Juan Martin del Potro, who was on a comeback after missing most of 2010 with a wrist injury that required surgery, and was facing then-world No. 2 Novak Djokovic in the third round of Roland Garros. As early-round opponents go, it was an incredibly tough ask, even for the 2009 U.S. Open champ. “(With a two-year rolling ranking system) if you stop being No. 5 of the world, you’re not gonna be No. 6 when you come back, but maybe you’re gonna be No. 14, 15,” Nadal suggested. “But with the way the ranking is done today, that's not happening. If you have an injury for three months, five months, you're done.”

The ATP computer rankings were introduced in 1973. They were a total game-changing innovation—arguably greater than anything that has happened in tennis since that time. Instead of individuals, panels, or interest groups determining rankings, entry into and seeding at tournaments, there was an objective measure related solely to on-court results. They have functioned incredibly well and few changes have been made to the method behind the rankings, issued every Monday by the ATP.

It would be wrong to change to a two-year system, and here is a summary of the reasons why:

1. Tennis should be a meritocracy, where good results are rewarded and advancement is possible based on performance. By using a two-year sample size, players will stay at the top longer once they have been established, making it more difficult to other players to progress up through the ranks. With the introduction of the Masters 1000 tournaments in 2009, and points also doubled to give Grand Slam winners 2000, there was a downgrading of points for many other players, including significant reductions at the Challenger- and Futures-level tournaments.

That has already made it much more difficult to rise up the rankings, and a two-year ranking cycle would create a further obstacle.

2. Does tennis really want to be like golf, which uses a two-year cycle for its Official World Golf Ranking, after the recent case of Tiger Woods? After his personal debacle began at the end of 2009, Woods held on to his No. 1 ranking for almost the entire 2010 season, despite not playing for several months and then going winless when he did.

It seemed ludicrous that Woods was still in the top spot nearly a year after his last title, but he had back-loaded points in the 24-month cycle from what he had done the previous year. He was finally succeeded by Lee Westwood in November 2010. Incidentally, Woods is No. 50 at the moment. “He stayed No. 1 because of what he had done some time ago,” noted Canadian golf writer Lorne Rubenstein of the Globe and Mail. “He was there until what he'd done two years ago started to slip away.”

3. The argument about a two-year cycle helping prevent injuries because players don’t have to play as much to maintain their rankings ignores the fact that there is a rule in place—a protected ranking—to allow players who miss at least six months to return with special exemptions for nine tournaments or nine months.

A more proper way to day with this complaint would be to revamp the crowded yearly calendar.

4. All tennis records related to rankings—including Pete Sampras’ total of 286 weeks at No. 1—have been achieved under a one-year ranking cycle. If an additional 12 months are added to the rankings formula, then it introduces a new criterion that significantly affects the record books.

***

The top players already receive benefits for the their high rankings, including being seeded, given byes and allowed certain written and unwritten privileges in matters such as when and where they play their matches at tournaments. Changing the one-year cycle to a two-year cycle would fundamentally alter the upward mobility of the lower-ranked players because the top strata would be more entrenched over a longer period.

With the notable exception of the ATP’s ill-conceived attempt to impose a year-to-date Race over the traditional Rankings, circa 2000, the rankings have been remarkably free of criticism and served the sport well as a measurement of performance. There is no need to change them. And even if a serious attempt is made to introduce a two-year cycle, it is highly unlikely it would gain the support of the mid- and lower-ranked players. Why would they support a system that basically makes things more comfortable for those at the top and harder for players further down and aspiring to move up?

With Nadal and Federer on opposite sides of this issue, it might add just a little extra intensity to their round-robin match next week at the World Tour Finals.

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Many players, including Nadal and his compatriot Ferrer, continue to push for the Davis Cup to reform its schedule by reducing the number of rounds or switching to a two-year cycle.

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Op zondag 27 november 2011 14:06 schreef Ambrosius het volgende:
Om 16.40 op Ned. 1 een terugblik op het tennisseizoen 2011 met Jan Siemerink.

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Op zondag 27 november 2011 17:14 schreef kevin_ het volgende:
Erg matig allemaal.

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Op donderdag 1 december 2011 08:21 schreef Federer-fan het volgende:
Ik ga nu slapen. Als iemand me wil sms'en als de Australian Open begint, graag.

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Tennisser Novak Djokovic in The Expendables 2

Geplaatst door Jan-Peter op 01-12-2011 12:44 - Bron: /Film
De cast van The Expendables 2, Simon Wests sequel op Sylvester Stallone's The Expendables, mocht er tot nu toe al wezen. Met namen als Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Terry Crews, Randy Couture, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Chuck Norris, Liam Hemsworth, Bruce Willis en Arnold Schwarzenegger belooft het vervolg een waar spektakel te gaan worden.

Hier kunnen we nu een hele opvallende naam aan toevoegen, namelijk tennisser Novak Djokovic. Hij heeft een cameo in de film gezien het feit dat producent Avi Lerner een grote fan van hem is en hem in de film wil hebben. Djokovic zal zichzelf gaan spelen.

Vanaf 16 augustus 2012 in de Nederlandse bioscoop.

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Op vrijdag 2 december 2011 22:21 schreef TheGeneral het volgende:

[..]

http://www.filmtotaal.nl/artikel.php?id=24069

Wait, what?

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Op zondag 4 december 2011 20:45 schreef Federer-fan het volgende:
Eind volgende maand is alweer bekend wie de Australian Open heeft gewonnen.

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Op zondag 4 december 2011 23:01 schreef luckass het volgende:

[..]

Wie dan?

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Op maandag 5 december 2011 01:12 schreef wimderon het volgende:
[ afbeelding ]

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Op woensdag 7 december 2011 10:45 schreef danusz1986 het volgende:
http://www.sportdome.nl/N(...)adal-en-Federer.html

Novak Djokovic beleefde in meerdere opzichten een historisch jaar. Niet alleen veroverde de Servische tennisser met vaak oogstrelend tennis de nummer één-positie op de wereldranglijst, maar hij wist ook het meeste prijzengeld ooit in een seizoen bij elkaar te slaan.
Djokovic verdiende in deze tennisjaargang 9,4 miljoen euro aan prijzengeld en dat was ruim meer dan de 7,5 miljoen euro die Rafael Nadal in 2010 en Roger Federer in 2007 bij elkaar wisten te sprokkelen. Deze week kreeg Djokovic als beste tennisser van het jaar een bonus van 1,2 miljoen euro uitgekeerd. In totaal staat de teller nu op 25 miljoen euro bij Nole.

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Op woensdag 7 december 2011 22:44 schreef TheGeneral het volgende:
Soderling niet naar de Australian Open...

http://svt.se/2.21318/1.2633836/soderling_avstar_australian_open

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Op woensdag 14 december 2011 12:44 schreef TheGeneral het volgende:
http://vault.australianopentv.com/

Geweldige site

Geniet hier van fantastische wedstrijden op de Australian Open en bekijk ze in het geheel nog eens. Denk aan klassiekers als:

2000: Agassi - Sampras
2003: Roddick - Aynaoui
2005: Federer - Safin
2005: Nadal - Hewitt
2007: Federer - Roddick
2008: Hewitt - Baghdatis
2008: Federer - Tipsarevic
2009: Nadal - Verdasco
2009: Federer - Nadal

Heerlijk om sommige partijen nog eens te kunnen zien.

Ook Highlights, Rallies, Winners, Unbelievable shots en nog veel meer is beschikbaar!

.

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Op woensdag 14 december 2011 12:44 schreef TheGeneral het volgende:
http://vault.australianopentv.com/

Geweldige site

[...]
.

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Op woensdag 14 december 2011 20:31 schreef Federer-fan het volgende:

[..]

Geweldig inderdaad. Je kunt eigenlijk nooit ergens complete wedstrijden bekijken, alleen highlights,

_{Wat ik alleen wat minder vind, is dat de uitslagen erboven staan.}

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Op zaterdag 24 december 2011 13:18 schreef luckass het volgende:
Waarom de nummers 2 en 3 een bye?

En Nadal heeft geen last meer van oververmoeidheid?

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Op zaterdag 24 december 2011 15:29 schreef Salamando het volgende:

[..]

Dubai favourite tournament no? Can play good there.

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Op zondag 25 december 2011 00:58 schreef wimderon het volgende:
http://shanktennis.com/2011/12/24/a-year-in-ivo-karlovic-tweets/

Dr Ivo

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Op zondag 25 december 2011 00:58 schreef wimderon het volgende:
http://shanktennis.com/2011/12/24/a-year-in-ivo-karlovic-tweets/

Dr Ivo

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Op zondag 25 december 2011 11:53 schreef Norrage het volgende:
Ivo

De beste was toch wel van zijn Halloween costume: Olivier Rochus

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In slack moments at press conferences involving elite tennis players this year, a favoured line of questioning has been to inquire about the schedule.

It is a topic nearly certain to get a rise out of players who otherwise are plodding through another media session.

The schedule! Endless. Pitiless. Destructive. Certain to end more careers than tennis elbow.

In the past six months, Novak Djokovic has questioned the current calendar. Rafael Nadal deemed it "crazy" and "not possible", and predicted that "because of it, we will all have to retire when we are young". Andy Roddick suggested that players might need to form a union to stand up to exploitative tennis officials and tournament organisers. Andy Murray declared the schedule "messed up, and we need to change it".

Absent from the chorus of critics? Roger Federer, arguably the greatest - as well as most durable - player in tennis history.

On Friday, the Swiss for the fourth time plays in the semi-finals of the Mubadala World Tennis Championship at Zayed Sports City in Abu Dhabi.

In an electronic question-and-answer exchange with The National, he seemed to suggest that the schedule 'twas ever thus and that players control their own destinies.

"We have to remember that the season has always been long and gruelling," Federer said. "That's what makes tennis so amazing.

"Just imagine, in the old days most of the top players were also playing doubles."

He said the tennis calendar is not designed as an instrument of torture for elite players.

"I have always tried to make sure people realise that there are many players who are playing tennis and it's not just the top guys," he said. "There are other players who don't win every week and want the tournaments and need the jobs."

Players are obliged to play 16 tournaments (the four majors, the eight Masters-level tournaments and four of their choosing), and if they play fewer than 18 tournaments in a year they lose rankings points.

Certainly, Djokovic's schedule through the US Open, coinciding with his surge to the No 1 world ranking, was extremely rigorous (76 matches). But welcome to Federer's world: the 16-time slam champion has played at least 70 matches for 11 consecutive years, including 76 in 2011, when he turned age 30.

"I think the biggest challenge for the top players is managing our own schedules and not overplaying," he said. "This is key to health and long-term success."

He concedes that the issue warrants continued study, but said that some improvements already have been made. "We now have many 28 [player] draws in the ATP 250 events, we don't play three-out-of-five-set matches in the ATP Tour anymore and we will end the season earlier next year.

"We need to see what happens as a result of these changes before making any new changes."

He added that "we need to do what is right not just for the players but also for our tournaments, who are our partners in the management of the game".

He acknowledges changes in the game since his 1999 debut as a full-time player. "The slowing of the court surfaces, the string technology and the evolution of today's modern athlete has contributed to making tennis … more challenging for the athlete," Federer said.