New ATP withdrawal ruling for 2009

andyjmr · Intermediate Club Player

New ATP withdrawal ruling for 2009

Salmon · Tennis legend

Guys like Nadal and Baghdatis won't be able to cheat.

Vonce · Club Coach

Certainly is a bold move. A very good one at that.

Madeline · Admin:Moderator + Tennis Legend

Well, yes, but. . .

Say if Fed decides he has had enough for the year and not turn up for Paris (again). From what I understand, he is not banned from Paris the next year but from playing in his highest-points tournament (how they choose which one when many are the same points I don't know).

Right, so to try to prevent players "going missing" one year they will make sure they miss tournaments the next????? So they miss TWO tournaments instead of one?

There is something a bit illogical there surely. confused

Count Zero · Tennis legend

i cant see them carrying that threat out, as with the way the points work it would mean banning players from the slams!

Could you imagine if fed got banned from wimby or rafa from RG, would totaly devalue the tournament and just make the organisers look stupid more than the players.

Madeline · Admin:Moderator + Tennis Legend

I don't think it would affect the slams, the ITF run them, not the ATP.

ForeverDelayed · Grand Slam Champion

The slams are run by the ITF, so the ATP has no power over banning players from playing in the slams

However... I do think Mr. Disney is stupid enough to actually impliment this idea, and ban players from tournaments if they don't fancy turning up.

I believe this has been decided to try and boost spectator numbers, but if for instance, Roddick doesn't fancy playing Rome and gets banned from Indian Wells, I'm sure the American fans and the tournament will delighted to know that one of it's biggest draws isn't allowed to play

If they want to stop players withdrawing, then spread them out instead of having back to back events a couple of weeks before a slam, as that is the real problem

You'll either get the situation where a 1000 event (stupid idea for the new name for the MS, and it would be great if the ITF decided not to double the points for the slams and made the whole idea look stupid) would be lacking 4 of 5 top players as they didn't fancy showing up for Paris at the end of the season, or players will turn up on the day of the match, play a few games and then retire injured, or throw in a quick match, lose in straight sets, and fly out again in the evening, and nobody wants that to happen (You get the farsical situation where 2 players who don't want to play an event draw each other in the first round, and they both try to lose)

The new rules are horrible, but Mr.Disney is stupid enough to actually think they will work, and we will see players being suspensed

goldenboy · Club Coach

bit of a stupid idea.
naturally, no-one wants the top players pulling out from the top tournaments, but just can't see this working:

firstly, will be very difficult to ascertain if players are actually injured or not

secondly, banning players from future tournaments will be doing exactly what they are trying to prevent! ie the top players playing the top tournaments

thirdly, players may then feel obliged to play tournaments when not 100% but not badly injured either, which could easily lead to long-term injuries being picked up = lots of missed tournaments!

fourthly, it could detrimentally affect other tournaments if players know that, say, if they reach the final of one of the lesser tournaments, they would not be able to pull out from the following week, even if exhausted!

so overall, not a great idea! However I do agree with the sentiment in general - i,e, the top players should enter the top tournaments! maybe the only way to prevent withdrawals is simply to dock ranking points! eg - if a players top points tournament was deducted then it would definitely reduce withdrawals!