What Is The Future Of Tennis? | These Things NEED To Change
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 20 ต.ค. 2020
- In this video, I just wanted to create a discussion with you to see what is your opinion on the future of tennis. I really love tennis and I love being in the court and learning about tennis. Tennis is my livelihood. What can we do to make tennis more exciting in the future? Do you like it just the way it is, or do you believe it has room to grow? Let us know in the comments below.
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Dustin Brown v Top 10 player is exciting and fun to watch. 95% of play is too conservative, boring and laggy for 5 hours. Just do 24 pt sets, 1 serve only, win by 2, finish in 1/2 to 1 hr. Put GoPro on players. Guarantee players will play 3-4 matches in singles free for all, doubles, team with ranking pt cap for balance. Volleyball, doubles changed their scoring.
They need court level camera views almost exclusively to make it exciting to watch
I agree
I agree
Seriously...why would you put the camera up in the nosebleed seats????
Yeah I prefer courtside view
Yea like NBA
I think having college tennis on major networks needs to happen. There is great emotion and connection with the team format of ncaa tennis. It also gets young fans engaged with new young players that they can follow once they go pro which creates fan bases. It also gives goals for young players to reach. It is much more motivating to see an achievable level of a sport on television.
For everyone promoting the team format....hello...It's already there. Go support your local NCAA team. Honestly it's more entertaining than ATP and WTA.
Agree I think tennis’ downfall is being a single person team sport. That’s why laver cup and such things has been so good for tennis
Camera angles. I remember before I know tennis, I was really confused when the tennis is in satallite view, everything is so small and the ball look so slow. Since I don't understand strategy and tactics, all I focused on is actions. I actually thought I can beat those pros because how slow the ball looks from that distance. I think if events can change and add seat level view and make it 100% it would bring a lot of eye balls because at high level match the amount of movement and reaction speed is insane that is something you can't see or experience as a low level or casual.
Definently!
we need to boycott tennis tv until they do court level view
Yep, I didn't realize how fast and with how much power the ball was getting hit until I was up close and live.
As an amateur player, I was never under the illusion about the speed of the game, because I played against people of many levels. I was just a recreational player at about 4.0 level, and I once played against a 60 year old former college player. His second serve bounced to my eyes, and I had to retreat far back in order to receive. It was a struggle for me in every shot to keep up with the pace. He still beat me easily. But I can see for people who don't play, they could easily think tennis is just a game, not a sport that requires athleticism. In fact, one dude had said that to me.
"I actually thought I could beat those pros" hahaha you're unique on this hubris buddy. though I agree it doesn't look super fast on that angle, any person with minimal self awareness would not think that.
what is a real turnoff on tv is the camera angle. the ground level cam is 10x more entertaining, and was the best aspect of the ultimate tennis showdown. but i am pretty sure that most of the casual viewers would complain "uuhh i can´t see ball" give me my old (shi++y camera angle back.
You have read my mind, totally agreed
nobody else in the family plays tennis aside from me and this is exactly what happens when a point starts and the broadcast is on court level camera lmao
100% agree! Why don't they use the court level angle more often?! It's a no-brainer. If they're afraid that it will deter people from going to the event because it's like it's in their living room with that angle, they're being ridiculous. Still doesn't compare to watching in person.
@sheltomo th-cam.com/video/5qDsCk2JqqU/w-d-xo.html
Agreed 👍👍💯
I found myself liking tennis from 2005-2010, used to stay up late to watch slams, now i can't be bothered. They've slowed down the courts so much. No variety of play styles anymore.
Completely agree! They need to speed up the game, so tired of 30 shot rallies. They need to change something to spur different styles, game has become to homogeneous!
Completely agree. Way too homogeneous
Yeah. Agreed.
Now I only watch highlights on TH-cam.
And I very much miss the Doubles, which I find more exciting than Singles.
These days power almost always wins over finesse. That's boring to watch. I have no idea how to change the game to fix that.
@@WallyWolf Did u watch the UTS matches ? Some good ideas over there.
I totally agree with your point about team tennis.
ATP Cup 2020 was amazing. As Bulgarian, I was so excited and happy that I can see our 2nd racket(~ #300) winning. I actually follow and support him since then, he is on the verge of the top 200 now and I think the ATP Cup experience contributed a lot for that success.
Good video. I personally love the college tennis format, especially the new one with shorter doubles and no ad. Don't get me wrong, I love the really good several hour battle, but I'm a hardcore tennis fan and I can't get my friends to come watch a match with me if I have to say "well it could be 90 minutes or it could be 5 hours". It's hard for casual fans to plan around that vs. other sports. We also don't do enough to reach the younger generation. Very few of our top players have a TH-cam presence. There's no major licensed, annual franchise video game like a FIFA or Madden, NBA 2K. But I think the biggest challenge is how tennis is managed. There isn't one single business that owns it, unlike the NFL. That makes changes challenging because of all the different entities involved. For licensing, you need to negotiate rights with each individual player, tournament owner, and tour owner.
Agreed!!
You’re basically speaking from an American perspective and at the end of the day tennis hasn’t been a must watch sport for the casual fan in like 2 decades here outside of the big 3, Williams sisters and maybe Sharapova. Then you have the fact that tennis is played all over the world with crazy time differences on top of the fact tennis is literally never on tv in the US unless it’s the tennis channel or ESPN during a slam. I remember tennis being on espn, nbc, tennis channel, cbs, fox sports even oxygen (which is a channel geared toward women) growing up. I also think most players having the same or at least similar playing styles hasn’t helped and how the tours/tournaments in general don’t always let players express themselves has suffocated any chance of players showing actual personalities.
With technology eliminating people calling lines how can a new breed of McEnroe
Ike personalities yell and scream a lines people? Come on you can’t be serious.
Doubles tennis doesn't get enough love.
True. I’m not quite sure why, but it seems most people just aren’t interested in watching doubles. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that a lot of doubles “teams” are just two random players, rather than an established team (like the Bryan brothers). Not sure if I’m right but it’s a thought...
I think it's because we like to see 1v1 gladiator style, someone pushing their limits where in doubles its more stagnant
No kid growing up playing tennis dreams of winning Wimbledon doubles. Lets be honest, pro dubs guys play dubs because they are not good enough for singles.
@@tberry79 the points just aren't as exciting. Period. Been to a lot of pro doubles and the points are just super short cause the guys are so good at ending the points early. Now the points that are exciting are SUPER exciting, but they are few per match
@@youngsuit that's so true! It's very easy to score a point playing doubles and very difficult to defend one. What if a slower ball is used to play doubles? That could make the tennis points longer and exciting?
Your point on boring tennis players and styles is big for me. You know who I love to watch? Taylor Townsend. The fact that she's this underdog with a story of struggles due to being criticized for her weight and then using serve-and-volley to dismantle Halep was so amazing to watch. That's what makes good tennis: clashes of tactics and personalities. I think Nick is great for this. His underarm serves and his trolling antics make tennis exciting. He's the Happy Gilmore of Tennis.
I agree! We need more of that
Interesting video. I loved watching Laver cup even though it's an exhibition format. You are right about team events and maybe even franchise tennis.
quite an interesting video!! I think the engagement level that fans have during the team events is what the normal evets are lacking, the interaction between players, coaches and people during the team events is something that brings tennis closer to other sports. Another thing that affects the sport and that is the situation here in Colombia is that it is recognized as an elite sport only play by wealthy people, this causes that every time fewer people practice it. I think that solving those two issues could mean more people practising it therefore going or watching the tournaments
I've actually thought about this for a while. Couple of things to add on top of what you mentioned. It is really hard to make tennis a team sport because one person is enough to handle all situation on tennis court, unlike say, basketball where we NEED 5 players with different skillset to play different position; however good you are, you still need teammates to win. And lack in individual skill can be compensated with good teamwork strategy. However, in tennis it's not the case. Why would a top player play in a team where he knows everyone else will drag him down.
Also, for outsiders it's particularly hard to see the "fun" of tennis. Anyone can understand basic rules of, say, score, but not same can be said about tennis. Tennis contains so many details and it all happen very fast. It is just very hard to sit in front of TV to watch 5 hours of tennis.
I really love these ideas you're throwing out here. I think its great that you want to keep the aspects of tennis that define it as a sport, but modernize the way tennis is packaged and commericalized to a different fan base. Really good stuff. :)
Hi. I just heard about your channel from the newest video of Ian Westerman’s Essential Tennis channel. I think you’re doing good stuff as well.
Being a 39 years old guy from Germany and being into tennis since the tennis boom in Germany created by Boris Becker and Steffi Graf of the late 80s, I can confirm some of your statements. When I was a kid, tennis was like the 2nd most interesting sport (behind soccer) for the majority of TV viewers here. So it was about the two local heros that are still by far the most successful players of our country’s history. And it was about watching sports on free TV.
After Steffi‘s and Boris‘ retiring there were some good players like Nicolas Kiefer or Tommy Haas, but compared to the greatest couldn’t really attract that much attention here. They just couldn’t win a grand slam tournament and Haas had the bad luck to be part of the big 3 era which has made it even harder to win a grand slam tournament. I think after so many great players in the 80s and 90s, the lack of superstars in men’s tennis is the same for the US. There just hasn’t been a great US male player since Sampras and Agassi. I mean, Blake had a great game and Roddick some good stretches as well, but both just couldn’t continue the tradition of the US to be the best nation in tennis.
The other part is access to watching tennis. In Germany, in the 80s and 90s it was easy to watch tennis on free TV stations like public-service broadcasting or normal cable TV stations. Nowadays, there is like no live tennis on the public-service broadcasting at all and, especially ATP, barely live tennis on cable TV stations. So it’s very difficult to watch live tennis if you don’t have pay TV and this is like 40+ Euros (almost like 50 $) per month. That’s a huge difference compared to the past. And the lack of access really doesn’t help the middle generation (30 to 45 years old) to remain being interested.
The younger generation (25 and under) doesn’t consume TV anymore, so it would be necessary for the ATP to find ways to make tennis attractive for all those instagram, tic toc, etc. content creators. The majority of the young generation is about being handsome, healthy and successful. What sport can create a narrative like that better than tennis? I think there is a lot of potential. Additionally, being into gaming as well, it’s sort of sad there is no great tennis game available. FIFA, NHL, NBA2K, MMA, even PGA or MLB are famous games for gaming platforms. To attract interest of the younger generation, a great tennis video game might be a good thing either.
The lack of success is a lack of narratives. Being a tennis player, I prefer to watch NBA basketball and all those Undisputed, 1st things 1st, etc. shows where guys are talking about who is the g.o.a.t., which team will win and what trades are projected to come or would make which team better, etc. In tennis some of these talks aren’t possible as there is no famous league that involves trades, drafts, coaches and tennis doesn’t have narratives about coaching, defense or offense systems. These talks aren’t possible, but media has to create tennis related narratives in order to entertain people. I think the NBA’s tradition of awards at the end of the regular and post season is a good thing in that way. There should be awards in professional tennis as well. At the end of the day perception is the most important thing. The ATP has to find ways to create more narratives around tennis and maybe modify some rules to make the sport more attractive to watch. Gladiators and track & fielders have been the first stars in sports 2000 years ago. Boxing, MMA and even fake Wrestling are still working very well. They focus on the narratives. Tennis might do it in its own way to be more exciting.
Appreciate the support!
Tennis is struggling to bring in more fans and hold on to casual fans. For the TV viewer (main channel of engagement) changes need to be made. I really enjoyed the camera angle of UTS which is lower and closer to the players. You can see the shot shape and velocity so much better with this angle as opposed to the high up angle of the grand slams.
We need more Nick Kyrgios types
That sounds sad for Tennis. He's a terrible professional athlete. A waste of talent...
@@emmanuelcordoba1502 well a conor mcgregor is needed for viewing numbers
@@jason6344 there should be another way, he hasn't won anything yet... I think another rivalry like fedal would attract more people
@@emmanuelcordoba1502 well yes, but if they’re boring people that doesn’t work, we need hot heads.
facts. theres a reason why he is popular, because he is a personality.
Credits mann!! Love seeing you think about this!! Would love to have more people to talk with! About tennis ofcours😍 wish i could help!!
Award extra points for hitting your opponent with the ball
Agree, they need more financial investment at the "lower-end" of the profession. Those folks are still professional players and are more likely to engage fans regularly than, say, the top 100.
And they are hating Novak Djokovic for trying do that
There is strength in numbers! The team approach I believe is the answer in a lot of ways, as you stated, but also help for individual tennis.
A private team, say 10 players, call pull resources together with lodging, coaching and most importantly sponsorship!
This is an interesting discussion that is happening in many sports, and some aspects of it have nothing to do with the sport but how to package it to make it more profitable year by year. We need to be careful in some areas. Of course we should look at what makes tennis more exciting for fans: longer rallies, more strategy less hitting, less influence of serve, interesting player characters, player interaction with fans, shorter boring matches but 5 sets epic battles…etc. We should promote this. However I don’t fully agree with some issues mentioned here. Any sport will belong to their fans, and most sports are difficult to understand and follow is you are not a fan: Try watching Nascar, F1, golf, rugby, NFL, NBA, rowing,…etc without being a fan and understanding the rules and the complexities and you may become very bored pretty soon. And in most sports, other than the top teams/players and big tournaments, 80% of matches/races/games are dull and boring to watch unless you are a true fan. That level of complexity and rules make the sport great though!. Now you can try and make the sport short and simple, so it can be consumed easily by the non-fan…. but how great would “Augusta Open” be if it was no more than a 3 hole shoot out having everyone with same club? Quick and adrenaline filled, good to be consumed on a 10minute commute to work but none of the drama and glory of the hard earn 5 day war.
The key for me is the fan base. 40 years ago you would become a fan following your dad passion, your friend new hobby, something fun you tried in the park, that big sport drama that the entire city was talking about. And you would go out and try/follow. Nowadays kids spend more time in social media and they follow what they see there (which is nothing, as there is so much that they get overloaded with everything). They run away from slow, hard work driven progress, and they want be a “winner” straight away, …fast, easy, social winner which the society seems to like.
So to avoid dying, you need to bring them out of their media and into a court. That is the challenge!. How to use the new media to show role models, to show sport hero’s, to create drama worth following, to create attachment worth showing emotions for ….to create a life motivation they feel keen to dedicate the time to. Bringing more people into a paid-TV does not avoid tennis dying, it avoid business stagnating.
There is way too much sport on TV nowadays, there is so much that is difficult to show attention to anything other than the big events. We need less TV and more real sport, local club rivalries, city leagues, club’s & academies that promote the sport and not only themselves.
Well said. Game should reach larger audience mostly younger generation and create interest in them. There should be proper structure and good investment from grassroots through club levels to pro level so that the good talents are encouraged. Also I believe there should be more and more unique styles like Medvedev and characters like Djokovic, Kyrgios which will draw more crowds.
As tennis lover I really appreciate this video! We shall just face the problems directly, and try to figure out a better route.
love playing tennis. been playing almost all my life week in week out. but absolutely hate watching. there's just too much walking around, towel fetching, sitting downs, banana biting between each point that typically lasts 10 seconds. Then there's all the TV commercials... The format really doesn't help. I think if the scoring system is like tiebreaks, or even badminton or table tennis, it would draw audience attention for slightly longer periods of time perhaps.
Fantastic video! and your points are spot on. Hopefully the emergence of more tennis TH-cam channels like ours with a younger take on the sport might help bring some new eyes to the sport. Keep up the great work!
Need more personalities. Players like Nick Kyrgios, although disliked by many isn't afraid of public opinion. Very unpredictable, and super skilled. Need more players like that
Davis Cup used to be a very motivational event, so yes, I agree about the power of team events. And the need for exciting players and rivalries. If you ask my 8 year old son, his favorite player in Kyrgios
Where I live, tennis has taken off because it's a relatively safe sport for social distancing. Heck, even pickleball is gaining steam in the U.S. at least.
That is true! A lot of people are trying tennis/pickelball
@@KaruesellHQ tennis interest is soaring, I'm a coach in NYC, though when I ask my clients if they watched the match last night they say no....I'm like watch the TH-cam clips atleast....20 minutes of the best points in the match(sometimes ever point edited to perfection), plus if it's an epic one, they will put the unedited match up
One thought I always had for tennis is to have tennis players mic'd up for certain matches. Would be very interesting to see a different side (mental) of tennis other than hitting the ball. Also, I agree that shortening tennis season is very important! Not only for the health of the players but will create an "offseason" for people to anticipate tennis coming back. Great video and topic!
I think the Federer-esque "gentleman" personality he took on from 2005 onwards was pretty bad for tennis personality. Everyone thinks that to be a good tennis player you have to be cool calm and sponsor forward. Anyone who is not is considered a clown or a child and thats not fair
Agreed. Fed made tennis seem even more an elitistic sport... and when I remember the white Nike "suit" - holy crap, that was really unnecessary
Couldn't agree more. My dad, for instance, is a sick Fed fan. He considers Novak Djokovic a complete barbarian and the hate he has for Novak is such that he gets to the point of saying that Novak will be irrelevant in history even if he beats all the records, which is just absolute nonsense. His previous fav. player was Pete Sampras, who by this time is already less succesful than Djokovic.
I agree that you can't dislike Fed. he is a beast of a player and a very respectful character, but he created a "role-model-tennis-player" image that other players can not run from or they will be hated or polarize fans, like novak, nick, etc.
@@Matheusfk3 and yet who draws more fans into the sport? Federer or Djokovic? There is a clear winner there.
It's the opposite. Federer single handedly carried Tennis's popularity. Fedal rivalry made Tennis popular. Moreover Fed is much more interesting to watch than say Murray or Djokovic.
That was the best comment I ever read, I think the same, today is a crime have personality, players can’t show emotions, can’t break racquets, you need to be a fucking robot
Great insights Karue. Everything you said makes sense.
And also, there simply isn't enough variety in style. Don't you feel like everyone is converging on similar playstyle? Before, we have SV, big server, baseliners etc. And courts are much more different than they are right now.
Makr players use wooden rackets for Wimbledon every 2 years.
I don't know any non team sport that has as good a following as tennis, but yet its still quite low. I think the major problem is that its relatively difficult to find courts and rackets to play the sport whereas compared to basketball, you just need a ball and 10 people and you have a game for hours and hours.
years and years
This doesn't apply for Critcket (2.5 billion fans) neither Hockey (2.2 Bll)
Lots of people watching football but they don’t actually play American football. I would include hockey in this comparison.
Hi Karue,
I've discussed this a few times in the past, and Noah Rubin is the actual example I gave. Noah has been ranked around 125 in the world at various times, and around then, he would have made around 150k for that year. After expenses (hotels, flights, coaches, court hire, equipment, physio, etc etc) would have been left with maybe 25-30k. This is for an athlete, who is the 125th best IN THE WORLD, in a global sport. Compare this with the 125th draft pick in the NBA, who got a contract for $11m. Consider also, many pro players have trained for 10-15 years by the time they are 20. How much does a doctor earn by the time they have done their training of 7 years or so?
I know there is World Teams Tennis, but for whatever reason, that hasn't really taken off (IMO).
I would start by looking at the various leagues of football, basketball, baseball, etc, and see which have been most financially successful, and copy their methods, where appropriate. The thing is, NFL has maybe 20 games a year for each team, but basketball has a lot more, so the duration of the season is only one side of it.
Then you look at the revenue split. I think tennis players get a raw deal. What percentage do the players get, compared to other sports. I have heard some surprising numbers. And not just the pros. At grass roots levels, football players here (aka soccer for US fans) get paid to play in the juniors; or at least, they get heavily subsidised. Tennis juniors cost a fortune to develop, pretty much exclusively thanks to mum and dad. It's no wonder kids interest levels are hard to maintain, when they've been excluded from their own sport, where other sports appear to actively pursue them. Why would a kid choose a sport where it costs thousands of pounds a year, over another which may be effectively free, or makes them money???
Plenty more to discuss, but thought I'd put my 2 cents worth in for now.
Love the answer!! Appreciate it👊🏻
I totally agree with the point about game style - I LOVE watching tennis so I feel I am in constant search for youngsters who can do more than just top-spin groundstrokes behind the baseline...
I am all for things like data analysis/high percentage pattern analysis for sports, but at the end of the day we are mostly entertained by unpredictable shot selections.
Get rid of the second serve non-sense. First serve fault, you lose the point. This alone will solve most problems that make tennis boring. Matches become shorter, more unpredictable. There will be more attacking tennis (as a returner), more varieties of playing styles. It will favor the server less, leveling the playing field for each game (hence, increasing unpredictability for each set/match) and making ace less often and more valuable. It adds more stress to the players, hence more drama for the spectators. There will be less dead time to watch non-actions (bouncing of the balls, etc.).
You are basically asking players to use only kick serve
Appreciate this topic. I’ve been talking about this issue with my friends. I agree that the season is too long. I also like the idea of team events as well. I liked the team tennis style of match play, being able to sub in players was kind of an interesting idea. A couple of other thoughts I had are:
1) consider making all the events be 2 of 3. May not be popular for tennis traditionalists, but most people won’t spend 4-5 hours watching a match. Also, it might allow some of the bigger name singles players to participate in the doubles draw, which is team oriented and faster paced action.
2) hear in the US, you mostly need to have, “Tennis Channel “ to watch events. Unless it’s a major tournament and ESPN is televising it. I’d say try to get some of the events on other networks. When I was growing up, tennis was on the 2-3 main networks. Golf, as an example is on 3 or 4 major networks..., although I’m not sure what the ratings are to be honest. Maybe the governing bodies for tennis could look at ways to get 2-3 hour blocks, to allow for more watchable time periods, on other networks to draw in from other networks for these team events.
I agree with shortening the matches. I would go a step further and say 2 sets and a super breaker lol
The game is just too defensive now, thats why federer is one of the most enjoyable to watch, because he is agressive.
Agreed
They need to make the surfaces more distinct like before the 2000's. That is what made it fun was the differences in styles of play and surfaces. No way these guys when 20 slams each back then. They would win a lot but not 20.
THATS the point... just make these baseliners suffer with FAST courts again and its all great again...
i so tired of boring baseliners like djoko and nadal... RUN RUN AND WIN POINTS DUE TO OPONENTS EXAUSTION
Agree so hard. Tell me why poly strings weren't a mistake.
Great video Karue! I really would love to be a fly on the wall in these ATP/WTA level marketing meetings because they should get the ball rolling on this.
Love your videos, keep up the good work! Setup a Patreon page if you haven't already!
Team events - way to go! Coming from the country of No1e, the ATP cup was great! Bringing up Lajovic as an example was also great - there should be more opportunity for lower ranked players to get visibility and engagement by the fans. Every slam needs a big team event kind of in parallel. Or perhaps there should be four "team-slams".
Volleyball made a smart change of the scoring some time ago and it made it much more compelling to watch. Maybe there's something to be changed in tennis.
IN my area, there's really no local coverage of tennis for local players, high school players, etc. And other than mentioning who just won the U.S. Open, or Wimbledon, etc, there's no real mention of pro tennis either in the nightly sports new coverage.
I haven't watched a men's match in full since the 2008 Wimbledon Final. Why? Because 90% of the time you spend watching are of the players standing around, bouncing the ball, wiping their face with a towel, waiting to serve, walking from one side of the court to the other, sitting on chairs etc. Some players even deliberately waste time. It's worse if you're at the stadium as you can't move from your seat and do something else. Don't believe me? Record a video of yourself playing a singles set. The set might take say 40-50 mins to complete. Edit the recorded video to show live points only. That edited segment will be about 10-15mins long.
Absolutely. If you compress/edit a tennis match just to the actual ball hitting I think you will be down to 15 minutes of play.
Spoken for truth. When I watch a match on TV now, I make sure that I can do something else at the same like paperwork, pay the bills, watch a few rallies, do the bills, organise the cupboard, watch a few rallies etc. Need something to fill the "dead" time during matches. Going to watch isn't much better either - the tickets are ridiculously expensive for a courtside seat and whilst the atmosphere can be terrific (eg. Federer, night time at O2), you can't fill the dead time.
Imagine golf or baseball
Ya watching mostly just highlights now.
So true
I started watching unpretentiously, but you were really perceptive and certainly thought about this subject, it shows. I think that the country leagues and special tournaments at the end of the year would also engage the yourger kids to start playing. Really nice video, congratulations on the channel and on your content. I have to agree about tha fan base age, at least here in Brazil I discuss much more sports with my friends grand parents than with them haha (tennis x soccer).
Keep up the great work.
Muito obrigado, André!
This is one of the most Thoughtful analysis's on situation facing the tennis world that I have heard. I think at the end even give some pretty good suggestions about things that would improve tennis for both the fans and the players. What's needed however, is a comprehensive plan written down on paper that can be looked at, modified, and followed. What I hear a lot of is, that tennis needs to change, which I agree with , but what I almost never hear is how exactly things need to be done differently. What is the actual game plan? That is the real question.
Absolutely agree with you!
And yes, there is a risk (at least here in USA) the sport will fade away. It remains a bit of an elitist sport. It's a beautiful sport, I wish it was accessible to more people. I was not rich growing up but I got lucky we had several decent public courts nearby and USA men's tennis in the 90s was very popular so we had legends to watch on TV. Speaking of TV we cannot even watch the major tournaments on free TV anymore! Everything is behind a paywall. Tennis may go the way of autoracing which had it's peak in the 1960s/70s and steadily declined. Tennis governing bodies need to put better free highlight videos on TH-cam for example. The US Open and Roland Garros official TH-cam highlight videos were ridiculous/atrocious.
this is spot on
Yeah making crappy highlights to force you to buy various memberships is short sighted thinking
Also, how does the WTA channel manage to make 8 minute videos about most individual matches from a tournament like Ostrava and 2 grand slams can't pass the 4 minute mark? Props to the WTA channel though
Respectfully disagree, tennis needs to be in a club, you need coaches around and other players to compete against and maintenance . However, the clubs should be affordable $5/hr not just indoor courts that are $35/hour. Public courts are not maintained well enough. In Europe tennis is played in clubs and it thrives. I play on public courts because there are no outdoor clubs and I can not afford or like indoor tennis.
@@info781 yeah well $5/hr is basically public at that price level.
I think it's definitely getting better! You are able to watch highlights on youtube all day of current events, which is a huggge improvement! They still have a long way to go, but I do feel like its popularity is starting to grow again. Maybe they need to do more to get to know the players on a personal level. They also need to do more to support the players that are up and coming. As I said...it's gotten so much better to watch in my opinion, but that's coming from me who is a huge fan. A lot of my younger friends say that it's too difficult to learn so they have a difficult time getting into it. I think that has a lot to do with is as well...a lot of people don't find it relatable because you can't just pick up a ball and throw it to your friend, which is second nature. I agree with you Karu, it needs to become an easier sport for casual watchers to engage in, but how...I do not know.
I’m a huge tennis fan but I’m pretty much done after the U.S. Open. The Laver Cup is exciting and I really like your ideas on team events and leagues during the fall.
A lot of good points brought up, they definitely need to switch some things up.
One example of this was turning a country/group competition the Davis cup into one single week tournament. I would much rather follow throughout the year if my country is doing good, and have those insane weekends of joy like when Brazil played USA, or Croatia, and really be supportive for some guys that we do not give that much attention on a regular basis
Good analysis. Basically, we need more variety in playstyles, more variety in court surfaces, more personality on and off court, more opportunities for players outside the top 100 to make a living and have a chance to break through. Team events are always fun, gives casual fans a chance to really enjoy the energy of a packed stadium. More low camera angles too! Most casual fans have absolutely no idea how fast and athletic these players are.
ive been thinking for a few years that there needs to be some sort of tennis world cup every few years and/or besides davis cup there needs to be like 2-4 annual nation based team tennis events similar to laver cup or the ATP cup. I also agree with some one else below that going exclusively with the court level camera or at least way more often as the standard camera to watch from would absolutely be the move. It is way more exicting to watch from court level where you feel like youre a part of the experience and you can appreciate the intensity the players are playing at and really see the weight of the ball and the footwork that goes into every point.
There should be a behind the scenes Netflix documentary on professional tennis, just the F1 docos. I only had a passing interest in F1, but after watching that, I felt a real connection to the drivers, and now I watch all the F1 races!
Yeah youre definately right about team formats creating more excitement. I remember when i was growing up in the 80s and Sweden was doing so well, everyone was watching davis cup, that was really exciting! I dont know what really happened after that, exept that Sweden crashed as a tennis nation, but im pretty sure overal interest has gone down everywhere. I actually have a couple of suggestions for rule changes. First is how about allowing on court inverviews with the players during matches, imagine how exciting to hear their thoughts about whats going on during a match and so on. Second thing is a bigger thing and therefore i doubt it will ever happen but i think it would make a good change and bring a different dynamic and excitement to the game. Only 2 or 3 maybe secondserves per game. One of the most boring parts about tennis is when theres no play, someone hits a hard serve, its an ace or the other player hits a net, and thats the end of that point. Now the worst part about that is that the server that wins the point so easily is not even taking any risk what so ever because if he misses hes always got his second serve. Now with only 2 or 3 second serves per game you create a whole new dynamic where the server when he decides to go big actually risks something. If he runs out of first serves its gone be very difficult to hit winners on the serve, but the fact that you dont take away the second serve completely still enables him to go for the serve and hit aces, and doing so will be so much more spectacular then now because youre actually risking something. Actually i can think of one more rule change, il throw that in there as a bonus ha ha, its a no brainer and should have been done away with long time ago, its the no let on serve of course.
Fully agree with your affiliation thinking. I never saw things that way but I think that's very true. How to engage fans by having them identify to a team, a country, a continent? Promoting team events might be an interesting solution. The UTS idea from Mouratoglou was interesting, identifying guys with aliases like "the greek god" or "the pusher" made it look more like video games.
Now I'm thinking about it more, maybe adding different tournament style might attract more eyeballs besides the typical laver cup teams idea. E.g. 1) Mario party mini game like mode where multiple players has to compete to see how many balls they can hit a target in a limit amount of time. 2) Serve bot mini game, where they look at how many times a server can hit a target or moving target in a limit amount of time 3) A game without serve, so instead of someone serve, a ball machine will toss a ball to start the rally and the game is to hit with a specific shot, perhaps you can only hit between the knees and see how many of them each player can hit until the other miss.
We are enjoying possibly the greatest generation in our sport and because of it maybe the future looks uncertain to many. The same happened to me when Lend, Becker and Edberg retired, then it happened when Sampras and Agassi retired. When the three current beasts retire I am sure that the new generation will keep the sport interesting and exciting. Thiem, Tsitsipas, Sinner, Rublev, Medvev etc. There is so much talent and desire to excel that our sport is in good hands. When it comes to rules and tournaments I don't see why not adopt limited coaching in non slam events. Also tennis channel can incorporate more coverage of college, national 5.0 finals, juniors events to show people a level of play that is more realistic to them.
Hey Karou, I’ve seen or heard topics like this. Based on my experience, in this pandemic, tennis is dying or boring, not fun, people don’t like it. Whereas, the pickle ball courts are full, they even have a rule on how to play if others are waiting. I think the reason for this is the learning curve. Tennis is hard to learn. If you go out to the park, most players serve like a frying pan serve on their second serve, my tennis partner serves this way. It took me a year to develop a topspin second serve. Assume a year per stroke, so you got forehand, backhand and serve, that would equate to 3 years before you can play tennis. Compare it to pickle ball, you can play on day one. I am from the Philippines, it is a basketball country, same thing, you can play basketball one day one, no learning curve. The future? I would predict that pickle ball will overtake tennis, so don’t worry, the skills you learn in tennis will translate to pickle ball.
What I like about tennis is that you hit the ball every second. Do you run the football or kick it every second? Do you shoot the ball every second? Do you throw a punch every second? NO! Tennis is very satisfying, so fun. But there is a big but, you can do this with pickle ball.
I haven't played pickle ball, but if there's a friend who would invite me I would probably like it.
Maybe there can be a court level camera on both sides and u can choose which side you want to watch from based on who you support
There are some interesting styles and personalities on the tour, and a majority of players don't go far in tournaments often. That's a problem as far as diversity for fans.
I'm a huge fan of the big 3. That's great for me, because they do well so often that when they're all healthy I'm seeing them go deep every week almost in tournaments.
But what if you're a fan of Dustin Brown's clown style? Or Krygios rebel persona? Monfils atheletiscm? The list goes on.
What I found interesting about the Lavor Cup format was that it made someone like Krygios all of a sudden feel relevant. If a player lost, they would play again. So some kind of weekly team competition, say 4 players per team, two singles and two for doubles, could make tennis much more appealing to a mainstream audience. Creating something that's at least heading in the direction of established godly team sports such as football/soccer. People get so worked up say when Man United plays Liverpool and so on. Its bigger than the players themselves. It brings out that tribal thing people still have in them, them vs us. We don't have that in tennis. If you rally behind Federer, it's not 'us', it's you cheering for him. Supporters of soccer teams and other team sports don't feel that way. It attaches deeply to their sense of identity, who they support, to the extent that their team becomes them, part of their life. And that brings in money for the sport, that kind of devotion/passion.
Tennis needs something like that, and Davis Cup, Atp Cup style events isn't that. It's a short world Cup type event that should still receive more support than it does, but as I said, tennis needs a weekly team event for a decent portion of the season. Branded teams with kits that change every season, home and away kits and all that. Merchandise to sell to grow the sport. Maybe a 1/3 to 1/2 of the season in this format. The rest can be singles and doubles kind of how it is now, but more like hardcourt, grass, and clay being more evenly split. I'd actually reduce it to three slams in this case say with a couple of masters on the surface before each slam (this would make masters seem more important). I'd ditch the atp finals and replace it with a 'world cup' type scanerio that's essentially THE tournament to win each season to dial focus of the tour to that one event for casuals. Have the surface and location change each year. Each match should be more interesting than in slams though, so I'd section it by rank, so maybe top 30 in division 1 world Cup, 60-31 division 2 etc., somethinh like that. Reserve it for top 100 players or something. I don't know about that, but it is a problem in slams that most early round matches are boring and predictable with top players.
Back to slams, I'd change it so that slams aren't best of 5 till round 4 or quarters, and I would make this the same for the women. Three set match ups with the best towards the latter end of tournaments lack drama.
This kind of restructuring probably isn't going to happen, even if people wanted it, much like how there are too many belts and divisions in boxing. Too much money wrapped up in bs. But I think it would be great for the sport. It would give tennis more superstars as well. Nick Krygios would already be a superstar in this kind of tour in my opinion. But as it is now, we have three superstars and everyone else. That's bad for the sport.
Yes, it would also mess with goat rankings and so on moving forward when comparing to this era and the past, but I think the sport being healthy in the long run is more important.
When I watched UTS by Mouratoglou, I said to myself "what the ?!?". This video puts it in perspective
Good discussion Karue, one big thing that would make it more of a spectator sport would be to eliminate the second serve. This would not only be a big equalizer across all statures of players, tall or short, I think the long rally is what people want “not bang its over”. Maybe a no add scoring may help also. Your thoughts?
Another reason is the availability of TV matches. I do not own cable and the only way to watch is just highlights on TH-cam :( other sports are easily available on over the air TV channels.
Definitely
I think it is really difficult to find a good solution. Great if people start trying out new things. UTS was a bit too weird for me though - using cards and then the player‘s nicknames.
I really appreciated the camera angles though, which lets you better estimate how fast and spinny these shots really are, or why a great slice can be difficult to attack. And also that there were less pauses. As some already said and what really bores me as well are those long times inbetween the points and games. Sure it‘d be more difficult for the players if they had less time but then still, it‘d be the same for all.
For the UK there isn't enough Walls or Free Tennis courts to practice on.
I was at Eastbourne the other day. I know Eastbourne has a generalisation of having an elderly population but me and my girlfriend were the youngest ones there (20s). But then the ticket prices aren't really accessible for people with lower incomes.
I agree with the shorter season.
I know you didn't mention it but, 5 sets for grand slams are untouchable!!
Good analysis
i think if they had a number of different and interesting camera angles and edited it post-performance into something really awesome and dynamic it would be so much more thrilling to watch. The only issue is the live broadcast. It is hard for the camera angles to be where they need to be to make it the most exciting when it moves so quick and they can't predict what will happen.
I have found Laver Cup to be most entertaining. It does not seem to be exhibitor kind of matches as there are no ATP points involved. There is also the team format which suits guys like Kyrgios. UTS tournament is a great idea as well. Someone here wrote to create team Head vs team Babolat... Yeah, why not. Anything like that. The question is if it is possible to fit such events, if the players would be interested.
You need something like a Netflix of a tennis tournament. You should be able to choose which match to want when you sign up to view a tournament. Not just the slams but I should be able to easily watch Challenger all the way up to slams
Because they make the court way too slow, no winners, no excitement.
Yeah id like more court speed variation
In germany, we have "Team-matches" on higher level, called "Bundesliga". They play in between the big tournements, and for my team played for example Marco Checcinato (at that time No. 23ATP), Christian Garin (ATP 19), playing Position 1-6 against each other and then 3 doubles, for viewers and fans it is perfect and very attractive, in average our club counts 2000-3000 visitors during this day. You also can get in contact with the players, it is more familiuar organized with good sponsors...
Oh yes I know the Bundesliga. I almost played it a couple of years ago. Wish more countries did it. Same format as college tennis. More of that would be awesome
I agree, so what do we do about it and how do we go about it?
Newer players seem to focus more on being powerful hitters and don’t emphasize on improving their tennis iQ. Every player seems to play the same way from the baseline and rarely comes up to the net.
Here in Asia we have team tournament IPTL or International Premier Tennis League but was discontinue due to lack of financial support. Federer, Sharapova, Nadal Monfils Kyrios and Murray were played there.
Which country are you from bro ?
Watching this one a little late, but wanted to give my 2 cents. From a watcher experience I think the big issue (vs. other sports) is that the tennis matched are not very dynamic - play vs. total game time is below 50% - so fans watch more players taking breaks and preparing for the point than actually playing the point. I would put a lot more pressure on the players and give them a lot less time between points and games. Would aim to increase play time to game time ratio over 70%, to make it more dynamic. This would level the playing field, as less experienced players will have better chance to win against the established players if they're having a good day.
First off, I really enjoy this channel's content. Keep up the great work! Like you stated in this video, "Tennis is entertainment". Because it is entertainment, a lot of people watch it to escape from the stress of our everyday lives. Unfortunately, it seems that escapism is harder to come by when politics is being incorporated into a lot of sports now (which seems to turn some people off from watching). I know many people that do not watch a lot of sports because of this, and it's NOT because they don't agree with the political message (some actually AGREE with the politics). It's just that they are bombarded by politics in the media daily, and would just like a break from it all. Correct me if I'm wrong but a lot of sports (not just tennis) have seen their viewership drop dramatically in the last few years. Side note: I'm a big Naomi Osaka fan so I thought that it was really cool that you are a part of her team. But when pictures of her boyfriend giving the middle finger in the trophy pictures with Naomi (after the US Open) came out, it really shocked me. What was the point of that? It may of lost her some fans who looked up to her as a 'tennis role-model'. Lastly, I hope I did not offend anybody with my comments, they are just my observation of tennis and sports in general.
Sean Doolittle said a few months ago that sports are like the reward of a functioning society. In 2020 we're seeing that society is not functioning the way it should because of the fact that we're in a pandemic and there's centuries long racial injustices still occurring. So things really aren't normal despite society trying to rebuild itself and you have to be uncomfortable in order for any change to occur for everyone. You can't expect athletes to be "role models" and not speak up when the rest of the world is suffering. Also, advocating for human rights (including your own) is not political by any means. I know that social media isn't everything but her followers on all platforms increased drastically after the US Open so if she's losing 2 fans then she's gaining 200k more. So as time goes on it's possible that she could bring in new fans which she's already doing from Japan to Haiti. And if she wins at the Olympics that will be huge
@@AB_15 Just to clarify, I never said that Naomi's fans should or should not look to her as a 'role-model'. The parents should be role-models. I was talking about her as a 'tennis role-model' which is basically a tennis player who an aspiring player would model their game after. I am still a Naomi fan, but if her boyfriend is going to be giving the middle finger in trophy photo-ops in the future it's definitely going to be a turn-off for some fans. What parent wants to let their kid watch Naomi smiling, throwing up a peace sign, while her boyfriend gives everybody the middle finger (explain that to a kid when you're trying to teach them sportsmanship and being an ambassador of the sport). I actually laughed when I first saw the pictures, but then as I thought about how my young nieces would take that image it made me realize that it shouldn't be funny at all. AB, I actually agree with you on the issues of social injustice and human rights. I was just stating that some people see sports as the wrong platform since they just want to be entertained (since it is just entertainment after all). Thanks for the reply AB, I totally see where you're coming from.
@@phathoang9084 Naomi’s only accountable for herself and her actions only. She’s never talked down to or about any of her opponents. She actually gives them their props in press conferences regardless of the result. She’s always smiling and thanking the ball kids as well. She cheered on Iga as she won Roland Garros recently who’s also her good friend. There’s plenty more examples to go off of but those come to mind when speaking about her and not anyone else. You can choose to focus on those positive things or something that’s completely unrelated.
I like the shorter season idea.
For the players yes, but for the fans no.
The occasional fan will watch the slams while the die hard fans will follow the tour all year long. I hate those weeks with no tennis before it all starts over in January. 💪🎾
Less games in every set to make more deciding moments. Winners count double to favor risk taking instead of consistency. And of course, court level cameras for TV.
Only 1 serve
Who thinks that tennis is boring, didn’t understand a bit about it. Tennis doesn’t need to be Americanized. It has its own grammar and if you want to be a decent tracker, you need to get to know it. Otherwise you are an outsider of the tennis scope and it will mean to you almost nothing . Gaining more fan and “eye balls” is up to marketing techniques.
Truth !
As someone who has had to walk away from basketball after 20 years (temp - due to injury and now covid) tennis has been a lifeline in terms of the sport to now play. I feel the three biggest thing to change is:
1. Culture - step away from the shussh silence, the game needs to raucous, passions and emotive, still throw in key facets of respect. But telling me to be quiet all the time, kills the game for new fans.
2. Bigger entry at grass root, the more people that play, the more fans there will be, the more money there is for everyone.
3. Team aspects. This needs to come in big time. People root for teams, it needs to a special one to have support for an individual over a team. We need to go national!!! And the in nation - go regional or cities....
I think when they went to all the tie breakers to end sets they wanted to make the match faster but i know it made it less exciting for me a fan. I loved when they kept holding serve and just battled and battled long into the night
Great Video!
Some of my opinions:
Team events are great. What should happen is make these team events build up. Like world cups and Euro Cups. Happen every 4 years and having qualifiers.
However there is something I believe could help with engagement: Shorten the imbetween games break. If 2 games only last 5 min and then followed by a 3 minute break it ruins the flow. In my opinion their should be a timer if they should play at least 15 minutes until they can take a break at the end of odd game.
Yeah it does interrupt the flow a bjt but as a player the breaks are necessary if you are going to battle for 5 sets in some events. It gets really physical out there. But definitely something to think about. Appreciate your comment!
@@KaruesellHQ Thx I was thinking more about the first 2 sets. When players are still full of energy. Maybe in later stages, like you said 5 sets, then they can take breaks like normal
That would definitely be interesting. That is why I think we can have a shorter season with normal scoring then a bunch of experimental fun events for a couple months like the UTS.
TV Tennis started to get boring when the players started to stay at the baseline. Back in the day (Stan Smith, Aussies, Navratilova, Chris Evert, et al) and all court play it was fun to watch.
Agreed
Generally speaking, in tennis we have few seconds of game and minutes of nothing. So if the match is not exciting for some other reason, a casual viewer for sure will change channel.
In addition, I think you catch the point wehen you notice the lack of spirit of belonging because everybody can have some interest for a match if in some way he fells he is part of it.
So, who cares for a first round match between two top 100? Nobody.
Cancelling the second serve would be in the direction for more playing and less pause. What do you think?
One easy way is to loosen up the attire. For example I saw Kyrgios practicing in an NBA Jersey (Boston) and that was a youthful look or trendy at least. Rather than the usual Nike, Adidas, Fila clothing.. go for some kind of edgy look on the court. Maybe even different paint on the court surface? It's a huge canvas! We can do more.
STFU
@@svlagonda7417 I want to speak with your manager
Wow, i loved the tennis being played during covid, i dont like that people got or were getting sick or anything. But, it was great to see players who i have never even heard of before playing and actually beating seeded players or the top 50 players getting beat by a 500th ranked player. The big three are awesome and honestly before his hip issue, i feel it was the top "four" but, that is a different topic and a whole other arguement, lol. Off the soap box, i have had fun watching tennis this year so far. Cant wait for the Aussie Open!! And im no where near 60 years old!! Hahaha
I find the most entertaining matches are the exhibition matches that aren't taken too seriously.
Mansoor Bahrami is the best example, but Monfis, Brown and Kyrgios are also great examples. They take their tennis seriously, but they are entertainers first and foremost.
Another contributor could be that there isn't any "celebrity culture" surrounding Tennis (although this might be because the season is so long). If you look at Formula 1, the sport isn't as popular as football (soccer), but the top drivers are being paid the same because of the marketing values of their celebrity status.
If Tennis had more regular marketing events focused on getting celebs outside of the sport, involved in playing, more eyes (and younger eyes) would be on the sport, and build up the player's credibility with the wider public.
I also believe the rule where the crowd should be silent during a point should be scrapped. Let the crowd express their excitement for their player. It helps them in the journey to becoming fanatics of a team or player.
Agreed but you have to be quiet during points so the players can focus
Booing a quarterback prior to snap or a basketbal player while shooting penalties is not an option for me as tennis players are on their own, they don't have a team to rely on... too much pressure on a single person. Do watch the match Nadal vs Ljubicic in Madrid, one of the last three-set finals, it was awful to watch as Spanish fans were so aggressive, I thought they'd linch Ljubicic... I wouldn't like that sort of fan engagement
It is a little difficult for me to enjoy certain team tournaments other than Davis Cup/Fed Cup because the players seem too relax and appears that they are not giving the best effort to win.
That's fair!
I think teams and time restriction is definitely the way forward, or at least worth trying. I'd love to see two teams going after it in a big game of scramble or something similar! Or maybe more realistically singles/doubles but the players switch out. Basically some format where all players on each team play over the course of one match. Plus more players involved at any one time is naturally going to attract more fans. Keeping the match timed and therefore limited could also help (i.e. as the BTR Tour lays out). I think these two concepts could help start injecting more excitement and anticipation into matches, like when the clock is counting down in basketball or football when the game is tied close to the end etc, creating drama and suspense. Casual viewers can watch a tie break in the 5th of a grand slam final with two of the greatest players of all time and have no idea how important that moment is. But if random teams are tied 5-5 with 2 minutes to go everyone feels the suspense. Tennis needs to find that delicate balance of taking aspects of other sports that are 'working' whilst maintaining the back bone of tennis. I absolutely love the game and can play/watch for hours, but we need to create a version that is more attractive and digestible to a larger portion of the population.
P.s. great videos/channel, keep it up!
Agreed!!
I have to say something I don‘t say often to another human being - you are right
Your idea about a shorter individual season and a teams-based season is really good. Also the comments below about camera angle are spot on. There is nothing more boring than watching a stationary birds eye view of a tennis match from a camera 100 feet above the court. With today's tech, they could put a super fast camera behind the players that's on a horizontal track and giving the best possible angle for every single shot, with zoon in and outs even during the point. The difference in ball speed from TV to in-person if you are sitting behind the player is like 5x . Tennis will never get to team sport level like NBA, NFL. Just not as exciting as 12 vs 12. At best you have to compare it to something like boxing or MMA. During MMA fights, not much personality comes out it's all business, but there is more excitement in MMA due to the buildup to the event and the casual person knows the rules. rambling...
5:21 the older fanbase! Yes you nailed it. Chevrolet has a similar problem with the Corvette. Average Corvette owner age is 60! They were staring death in the face and went more "youthful" with their new C8 model, let's see if it works or it is too late. Hopefully tennis can pull in youth audience but NFL and NBA dominate the millennials, much better marketing. We need some popular celebrities promoting tennis for example
Its stale as the same 3 guys have been at the top for 20 years!! They are basically as good as humans can play so there's nothing new and exciting to see anymore
I personally like the Laver cup format, I think the team element is always missing with singles.
They need to add more teams to it. That is part of the reason why the laver cup was so exciting and competition is more fun compared to tournaments. More emotions, more buzz. With teams the sponsers will have more attention aswell.
I find the camera during matches too far back. Wish they could show more shots behind the player during points. I started playing tennis because John McEnroe made it interesting lol.
I wonder about the idea of professional club/team tennis. Having professional organizations representing cities is an easy way to include mass local support, and bring on rivalries.
Eventually, you can create large premier-type leagues.
Hell, the largest sporting event is the FIFA World Cup. Millions of non-football (soccer) fans are glued to their screens at pubs/restaurants to cheer on their nation’s team. Teams are a way for people to find commonality and attract the masses.
(I’ve also seen interviews where professional players state that the tour is extremely lonely at times. A team environment is something most professional sports enjoy)
Another reason is Live TV streaming. Tennis TV is $15 per month. Netflix, Prime and then another expensive subscription. Nope
Agree, ATP and WTA need to do better and faster highlight videos free on youtube. The TV contracts and pay walls are quickly reducing the audience and any future for the sport