Word: atp
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Just five months into his job as president of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), Etienne de Villiers faced a hostile crowd of doubles pros at the Masters Cup in Shanghai to explain to them why he would have to curtail their sport to save it. The players had already filed suit against the ATP, and there was De Villiers last November, back swinging just four months after cancer surgery, telling them he was going to go ahead with a shortened, no-ad scoring system; a super tie-break instead of a third set; and a rule that doubles players...
...year later, doubles, which had been losing money for the past 15 years, is thriving using most of those new rules. The ATP signed its first doubles-only sponsor, Stanford Financial Group, and the players have dropped their suit. Through frank talks and fulfilled promises of more doubles promotion and center-court matches--made possible by shortening the format and attracting more top singles players to doubles--the former Walt Disney exec has turned some of his harshest critics into his biggest fans...
...professional tour practically begs for a brawl, with lots of competing interests steeped in tradition and little incentive to work together. Unlike many professional sports leagues, which are made up of a collection of more-or-less cooperative clubs, De Villiers represents a coterie of competing constituents. The ATP oversees the maze of tournaments around the globe and is co-owned by the tournament directors and the players, groups whose interests often clash...
...After lunch we headed back to the hotel. That evening, at 7:30 all 45 of the top doubles players in the world met in the Park Avenue meeting room to discuss the proposed doubles changes that the ATP is considering...
...tournament directors pushing to have doubles matches shortened with no ad scoring and shorter sets. We met twice with the players in Cincinnati because we all feel that something has to be done. At Cincy, they were selling t-shirts with "Doubles Yes" on the front and "ATP No" on the back. Several coaches, players and agents were also in the room-including famed agent Pat Jensen and Tennis Channel founder and tournament director Steve Bellamy. I won't go into the discussions at this time but look for an important announcement at 10am on Friday at the U.S. Open...