‘World Tour’ the Flagship of Tennis
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The flagship that keeps Tennis enthusiasm in the world alive is the professional’s ‘World Tour’. Ask anyone from a lesser known Tennis country as to whom their number is and the chances are that they will not know. Ask them who are world’s women’s and the men’s top players are, without any hesitation the right names will pop up. In Tennis today only the ‘global village’ matters making the professional World-Tour the flagship.
Year 2016, did show a trend which was not seen before in the world-tour. It had the most number of winners in the top end of the events in both genders. No one player really dominated the scene in the likes of Pete Sampras, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and to a good extent Novak Djokovic and in women’s Serena Williams. In fact in a closely contested run for the world’s number one position in men’s, Andy Murray edged Djokovic out. Women’s number one Germany’s Kerber flagged her presence at the very first Grand-Slam the 2016 Australian-Open and finished at the top with two Grand-Slam titles.
Status symbol for cities
Having a top end World Tour Tennis event in any city has become status symbols for a ‘Big-City’ label. The tour calendar of Women’s and Men’s professional Tennis calendar is studded with names of major cities. Such is the power of sports today. The prize money offered also seems to imply wealth status of the city concerned. The tour traditionally begins in the Australia summer in January.
In Sport, there are five disciplines which have elite status recognition. All of them have heavy financial tabs to host events and to participate. Tennis is one of them. The other four are horse riding, sailing, flying and golf. By making the franchise expensive, the professional brand owning bodies are aiming at achieving two factors. One, the World tour in Tennis is very strenuous on the players and they wish to reduce the number of events without losing out on the money and glamour. To enable this owning a franchise for an event is made an expensive commitment. Two, is to make the events more attractive to the spectators by insisting top end player commitment. This too makes events really expensive.
Up and coming players
Some players who ended up in the top 30 at the beginning of 2016 have shown their talent and created some sensational upsets. Among them is David Thiem of Austria. He will have to be followed this year and chances are he will be one of the top five at the end of the year men’s ranking. The young man has only his physical break down to worry about. As for his game, it is in very good shape. Among women all eyes are on Czech Republic’s Karolina Pliskova and USA’s Madison Keys. Both had great runs in 2016. Slovakia’s Dominika Cibulkova did the unexpected in the year end finals of 2016 in Singapore beating world’s number one for the equivalent of the Master’s Title. The only player who will be really missed will be Petra Kvitova. Wimbledon winner and undisputedly one of the best women players, Kvitova suffered a serious violent knife attack just prior to Christmas. This happened in her apartment and all that the burglar took was 192 US dollars. In all probability she would have given him more if he had asked for it. It is a sad blow as her playing hand is very badly injured. She is not expected to participate in the first six months of this year.
Promises of 2017 and Brisbane
David Thiem of Austria
Serena Williams and Djokovic have voiced that they are keen to regain their lost status this year. Then of course there are others with such aspirations. It is common for players to change their support teams, at least those few who have them, at this time of the year. The most publicized one was the separation of Germany’s Boris Becker from Djokovic. As coaches and as support staff positions are not indispensible. Generally parting of ways goes unseen and unannounced, but this was not so.
Australian summer can be hot and Brisbane is well known for its weather challenge. The only salvation the players have against it is that they are fresh from their annual recess to perform. It is an unsafe ground for good players because most of the newcomers make their debut there. Junior players who had top ranking positions in the ITF junior ranking in 2016 usually sign in for the qualification rounds. In the past, these players have pulled out some good wins. So for certain the early rounds are not going to be dull for spectators.
The Australian season winds up with the first Grand Slam of the year in Melbourne in the latter weeks of January- the Australian-Open. In the past, the trend seen here gave an indication of the ‘colours to come’. Andy Murray looks solid, confident and relaxed. In this hardened competitor, being relaxed is not one of the traits he is known for. As for the brand of Tennis that will dominate, I feel it is going to be the ‘all court playing ability’ to be the winning one. Speed, multiple shot rallies, all court game, good nerves, enduring physique and personality to perform will decide the winners this year. – All the very best for the New Year!
 -George Paldano, Former intl. player; Accredited Coach of Germany; National, Davis-Cup, Federation Cup captain/coach– georgepaldano@yahoo.comw