The eve of another Wimbledon fortnight is a bittersweet time for the tennis fan. Sure, I look forward to seeing more of Anna Kournikova and less of that ugly bald dude on CNBC, but what about the men's game? Am I the only one who is underwhelmed by the prospect of another ace-a-thon between Sampras and Rusedski? The serve has really ruined the men's sport, especially on grass, and to a lesser extent on hardcourts. Short guys like Agassi and Hewitt, who have incredible reflexes and can win thanks to their backcourt game and service return, are the exception rather than the rule. Unfortunately, they will probably be the only interesting ones to watch this Wimbledon.
There have been a number of suggestions about ways to make the men's pro game more interesting. Ideas include reverting to wood rackets, reducing ball pressure, and shortening the service box so that it is harder to hit a flat serve in. You can expect Johnny Mac to chime in with some of these ideas over the next two weeks as he notes how boring the men's game is. For a variety of reasons, I think these measures would be hard to implement on a wide scale. But one thing that would be easy to implement is a simple rule change: Allow only one serve, not two (i.e., if you miss your first serve, you lose the point). That change alone should knock Rusedski out of the top 100.
Anybody else have any ideas about how to save the men's game, feel free to post them (or any other tennis rants) here. |
