Entry Week 41 - 10/10/2022

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

RE: Entry Week 41 - 10/10/2022

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

emmsie69 wrote:
JonH comes home wrote:
I still think regionalising the ITF level tour in some fashion has legs though in terms of cost savings on travel- maybe we should also consider the environment in having players at junior and lower level pro levels playing all over the world!
Some of them might want to though. I'm pretty sure there are Tennis players out there that make the most of some of the travel opportunities. Right now we have a group in Mozambique despite there being opportunities way closer to home. Staying somewhere like Monastir is going to be cheaper than travelling and staying in the UK. I would say that taking a group of youngsters out to somewhere like Sharm or Monastir for 6 weeks a year would be a good use of LTA funds. I'd also have a chaperone that is there purely on a wellbeing basis rather than a tennis basis

The fact that they might want to, though, is not really the answer to Jon's environmental concern - we all might want to do things but should refrain from doing so, or be discouraged by the system, if there's a tangible detriment.

Of course, people should still travel, and there are plus sides.

But, despite being a big fan, when Phoenix Weir went and played one event in Mexico, just before playing the grass events in the UK, I was not impressed (now, I realise it's possible he was there with parents on holiday, or whatever, but.....)

So, I think the idea of the ITF trying to reduce carbon emissions by reducing players travelling too much is a very worthwhile goal.

However, I agree with you about a chain of events in one base - that seems sensible - usually not the LTA paying though.

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

it is getting off the point of the thread, but my vision has always been that we create a similar tour to the golf tours with regional tours for Europe, NAM, SAM, Asia, Africa - whatever, you could break it down further, that players align to and commit to each year as their primary tour. They can get an agreed number of play out events each year (eg 6 non regional events outside their committed region) and, of course, play up if their ranking gets to that level. Effectively tour cards at the lowest level. At Challenger it should become global as it is now.

Obviously there will be a disparity in strength between Europe and Africa so maybe it is disentagled from the main ranking system and the players get regional rankings in some way or the global rankings allow for event strength based on say ELO ratings or something similar (ITR is it called?).

Within the region, having a lot of events in one venue would then work as a block, but also have standalone events - or satellite circuits in one country week after week if not one venue.

I think it would work with travel costs, ESG considerations on many levels. It would be different but would need the ITF to work with the ATP and WTA in good spirit. Events wouldnt suffer at that level as in any one given location each week, fans dont generally attend and dont generalyl care who is laying beyond local interest