JonH comes home wrote:

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As an aside, live tennis rankings site is down, responding with access code 410 Gone

According to Google this means "Specifically, a 410 error means gone. In Google's terms, the server returns this response when the requested resource has been permanently removed. It is similar to a 404 (Not found) code, but is sometimes used in the place of a 404 for resources that used to exist but no longer do"

Could they have closed down? the App is live but not updated at all since yesterday.

live-tennis.eu/en/atp-live-ranking

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 Working ok now.

JonH comes home wrote:

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It does seem the ATP Cup organisers are making the same problem as the Davis Cup, with late, late finishes. Arg and Rus are playing a dead doubles rubber, presumably as there are ATP points to be had, and it is first set still at 1215 am local time. I guess this will finish at 1 am or later, and there have been several such finishes. Presumably just die hard fans left watching...

I think this needs to be sorted for next season in both events, as clearly it doesnt do anyone favours - fans live or on TV have to very committed to watch a match at that time, players wont sleep for a few hours after it is finished, and journos clearly end up struggling with filing reports and again, being tired...not good

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For some reason Saturday's SFs are scheduled for 11 am and 6.30 pm local. Starting an hour later than before doesn't seem an answer.

Other than start times, in the current 2 ties on 1 court format it is difficult to see what more can be done.

They have played the doubles matches as no ad and MTBs which, much as I dislike that system, seems to have helped things a fair bit compared to the Davis Cup in Spain. 

Otherwise, time is taken up by changing from a day to a night session crowd and by minimum rest periods for players playing both second singles and doubles.

Could they instead say tough cookie re rests for doubling up players or would some player welfare bods intervene? Alternatively have no doubling up and be more of a full team just like GB ( err now, not as when we won the Davis Cup ). 

And spain join them, hats off to both teams, certainly rafa a d novak have given there all this week. 

I've seen reports that novak v Medvedev was up there as one of best atp tour matches and this week , some players have really played well. 

JonH comes home wrote:

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Hats off to serbia. Lajovic surprised me to win but seems he has won every time hes played khachanov. 

 

Serbia into final. 

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 Lajovic and Agut both excelling for their country. The final will very likely go to doubles to be decided. Busta and Nadal very strong pair so can't see past Spain for the final. That will be quite some achievement for Spain if they win both DC and ATP Cup, assisting the argument to unify. Excellent quality semi finals it has to be said but for me the dubs should be same format as singles, three proper sets and maybe some kind of limit on singles players playing in the dubs all the time, which seems to happening with many nations. It's getting back to a single player being able to bring a nation through almost single handed in a team event but at least where nations have used both the singles in the dubs, that approach has not yet won silverware. I do wonder what a 3x singles format would be like but I guess we'd only ever see top nations win then.

Having had time to look at both the Davis and ATP Cup, I've ended up enjoying both bit clearly have obvious flaws. 

The january time slot clearly works better and a 10 day event is much better than 1 week. 

The matches end too late in both and that needs to change. 

I like the multi venue idea and think that works as a world cup style event, and is the solution to late finishes if the format is right. 

Doubles should have a full 3rd set. 

The best runners up idea makes it a maths exercise and doesn't deserve to stay. 

I like lots of nations, again the world cup idea works. 

Ranking points work and it was noticeable none of the doubles matches got forfeited here, unlike in Madrid. 

I'd merge the two events, play over 10 days in january. I'd keep 24 nations but have the a process of entry not all about the top player. You need the top nations though so I'd have 16 qualify in a rankings basis of some sort and 8 qualifiers as per davis cup currently. Teams should be picked by the captain as opposed to rankings order only. 

The 24 nations I'd change into 8 groups of 3. The winners reach the last 8. The 8 groups play in 4 venues and over 6 days ie group a then b, a then b etc over 6 days, and so on for c and d, e and f, g and h across 4 venues for those pairs of groups. Thered be 3 matches a day which would allow 3 full sets of doubles, and play could be from say 12 til 6 or whenever in 2 of the venues each day, and 4 pm til say 10 pm pr 11 pm latest in the other 2 

The qf stage would be over 2 days and semis and final, making 4 days all in one single finals venue. 

Ranking points should be awarded. 

All in all, I'd take bits of both, maybe overall more of the atp cup but ensure both itf and atp owned it, with the title being the world cup of tennis for the Davis cup or some such thing 

wolf wrote:

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I'd like a format where there is a home team in every tie, guaranteeing spectator interest. Like the old Davis Cup perhaps.

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 I'd also like that but presume theres no chance of it reverting !