TOO, TOO LONG !

By Charles E. Vasoll

(originally published in Platform Tennis Magazine May 2003)

It was an exciting semi-final and I can tell by the score that the final was just as exciting, if not even more so. Too bad that I couldn’t stay to see the competition to the end.

I am referring to the Long Island Invitational played back in December 2002 at the Huntington Country Club. Here we have two of the premier players of our sport, David Ohlmuller and Scott Mansager, teamed together and being brought to a third set tiebreaker in both the semifinal and final before triumphing. The only problem is the excitement took too long to come. Something in the vicinity of five hours to watch two matches is just too, too long. If we ever expect our game to have a spectator appeal, we’ve got to find a less time consuming means to determine the winners.

I am old enough and I am sure a fair number of readers are also to remember when the National Championship was the best of five sets. The APTA recognized the need for a change in 1990 after the previous year’s championship at the Fox Meadow Tennis Club in Scarsdale, NY, lasted longer than the audience. There was an overflow crowd of about a thousand when the paddle was spun to decide the choice of serving or receiving in the match between Steve Baird / Rich Maier and the Kleinert brothers, Jack and Bob. By the time the match was concluded, even though it was decided in three sets, about the only persons present were the Committee members. This was the second consecutive year in which these teams met in the National Championship final. It added more pressure for a change after their battle in 1988. That engagement went for the full five sets with the scores recorded as 7-6,6-7,6-3,6-7, 6-3.

This problem was also given attention in tennis many years ago when the first tiebreaker was established to prevent game scores of 27-25 in a set. Now the demands of television programming have extended a time limit concern even further.

There is no doubt but that a reasonable length match is needed to determine the best team. On the other hand, we are attempting to seek out the most skilled team not just the one with the best physical conditioning to outlast an opponent. But most of all, in an effort to spread the word about how great our sport is, we want to have it appeal to an audience who will then want to duplicate what they have just witnessed for themselves. This is a primary means to spread the interest about the sport. Active, lifetime sports such as tennis and golf have done it. These sports have recognized the value of spectators. Platform tennis has to find a way to emulate them.

I know it has no attraction to players but the first minimal change to add a degree of excitement and at the same time shorten the time of play is no-add scoring. Certainly each ad and deuce point can be exciting but eventually the interest fades. The no-ad point can be long and time consuming but it has finality which multiple ads and deuces just don’t produce. But this is only the tip of the iceberg. No-ad scoring in itself will not cut down the total time for a match by any appreciable amount. A new approach must be considered.

In some of my club events, I have used an eight game “set”. Each player serves two times and five games win the “set”. If games are 4-all, an official tiebreaker is played. Along with no-ad scoring, most matches end at the same time and take less time than regular sets.

I remember considering this problem a decade or so ago. The idea that crossed my mind was to introduce a time clock. The serving team would have a specified time to win a point and if the receiving team held them off for that amount of time, they won the point. I know it sounds ridiculous until you realize that it works in basketball. They have a 30-second clock in which time the team must shoot or lose possession. I know it would not work but when you have a difficult problem you sometimes must think “outside the box”.

Maybe platform tennis has to leave its tennis scoring roots entirely and forget about “games” and “sets”. Maybe a totally new scoring system is required. I don’t have the ingenuity to offer a plan. I invite those of you who do have that kind of mind to put it to work and see what happens.

Bottom line I believe is that something must be done to bring brevity to our sport’s competitions on the championship level.

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