[longtin23]

I dont think weak field in a tournament is a problem. I mean let some low ranked players have a chance to gain.points, money and experience in those tournaments clashed with Fed Cup is not bad...

[Zhao]

empty seats in China? the attendance in Shen Zhen is even better than the attendance in New Haven...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fT4HYbOM4YI

[ivanban]

Originally Posted by longtin23

I dont think weak field in a tournament is a problem. I mean let some low ranked players have a chance to gain.points, money and experience in those tournaments clashed with Fed Cup is not bad...

Yeah, right

[August]

Originally Posted by coolfish1103

What a disgrace to have low crowds at a Premier Mandatory event with holidays. $$$ got you all those players to come cause it's mandatory but where are the fans? Only for Li, Peng, Zheng and all those rotten flowers that we can't name them.

WTA needs to fix the schedule with the ITF, it's not even that hard.

After Australian Open
- Davis Cup R16

Before Indian Wells
- Fed Cup QF

After Miami
- Davis Cup QF

After Wimbledon
- Fed Cup SF

After US Open
- Davis Cup SF

After YEC
- Fed Cup F

After WTF
- Davis Cup F

Adding Fed Cup to the week before IW is getting impossible. Acapulco's joint event moves to HC to be a warm-up for IW. Even though I'd have nothing against separate ATP & WTA events in Acapulco.

[Marcus1979]

Why is the WTA destroying the great events.

Look how great events like Amelia Island, San Diego, New HAven, Berlin and Tokyo are these days compared to a decade ago.

They are either non existent now or a shadow of their former selves.


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[Helen Lawson]

This used to be a really popular event, top players there, etc. Now it's some event for players who did shitty in Australia and mugs looking for some points.

[coolfish1103]

Originally Posted by August

Adding Fed Cup to the week before IW is getting impossible. Acapulco's joint event moves to HC to be a warm-up for IW. Even though I'd have nothing against separate ATP & WTA events in Acapulco.

Well, there are many tournaments where ATP and WTA are joint events but play on separate weeks.

Originally Posted by longtin23

I dont think weak field in a tournament is a problem. I mean let some low ranked players have a chance to gain.points, money and experience in those tournaments clashed with Fed Cup is not bad...

Just like how many 100k, 125k and INT China have this year so we get over-ranked players?

Originally Posted by Raiden

I don't think so. It's a choice they made.

No one forced the WTA to be inflexible and get in bed with the ATP for back-to-back four straight weeks.

True. They can fix the schedule in many ways to cater the top players.

Originally Posted by ozza

Surely no-one actually wants the season shorter than it already is?

While in principle what you say is good and sounds great on paper. In practice WTA probably don't have a lot of say in this. It is crazy that you have 2 non-grand slam events taking up 4 weeks of your calendar, everyone knows this, the WTA must know this.

I think the season should be much longer than what we have now, but they can give the top players a shorter season by making the mandatory events in 10 months.

Originally Posted by Raiden

One easy solution is to rearrange Indian Wells and Miami (these two tournaments are ridiculous on two counts: together they take up a whole month - they're practically bigger than the entire grass season. And they are doubly ridiculous because they are also back-to-back mandatory events.

Agreed. I think all those back-to-back mandatory events are killing the players' performance.

Originally Posted by Raiden

Fix that shit and the WTA will have two new extra weeks on the calendar that they can play and rearrange.

These are the kind of actions WTA can do instead of stealing bread away from the mouths of scrubs by shortening the whole season and not leaving room for Fed cups and what not.

Well, I think they can still place 125k events during Fed Cup.

Originally Posted by ozza

I for one think the season should be about 2 weeks longer than it currently is, which still leaves a 2 month off season, but allows you to stretch certain areas of the season that desperately need it. Post-USO is way too condensed as it currently stands. And the other week is needed from 2015 when there are 3 weeks of grass court events needed between the French Open and Wimbledon rather than the current 2.

Yep, the grass season being longer will eat into the North America hard court season and that won't be fun.

Originally Posted by ozza

One thing to add to the above post is the WTA system is too over complicated for your general fan. The ATP have understood this with there 250, 500, 1000 system - that is easy for everyone to understand. The WTA system is pretty long winded to explain to casual fans, and is not helped by Indian Wells and the like often just being referred to as a Premier event by broadcasters. The whole 3 tier of Premier events, entry rules to these events and Internationals is not that easy to understand, and I'm sure a lot of broadcasters themselves don't understand the full differences between events. On ATP everyone knows if you win a 500 you get 500 points, you win a Masters 1000 and you get 1000 points - it's that simple.

I like the old tier system. They can just formulate the events into:

Tier I - 1,000
Tier II- 800
Tier III - 600
Tier IV - 400
Tier V - 200

...and that will make a great deal of sense and be different from the ATP system.

[Melange]

Kiki gets better crowd than French number one and Fed Cup Star

[Londoner]

Originally Posted by longtin23

I dont think weak field in a tournament is a problem. I mean let some low ranked players have a chance to gain.points, money and experience in those tournaments clashed with Fed Cup is not bad...

[SAISAI-GOAT]

having a tournament in the week after AO is not bad ... Tokyo used to be week after AO and it had players like Hingis, Sharapova, Seles all the time

obviously the problem is just w/ Paris

[LightWarrior]

Originally Posted by SAISAI-GOAT

having a tournament in the week after AO is not bad ... Tokyo used to be week after AO and it had players like Hingis, Sharapova, Seles all the time

obviously the problem is just w/ Paris

There was no Dubai/Doha in February back then, that explains why many top players played Toray right after AO. Btw the stadium in Paris was full today despite a poor semi finals line-up. Obviously the problem is just w/ Beijing.

[ozza]

Originally Posted by SAISAI-GOAT

having a tournament in the week after AO is not bad ... Tokyo used to be week after AO and it had players like Hingis, Sharapova, Seles all the time

obviously the problem is just w/ Paris

Tokyo is a lot closer to Australia than Paris. Paris is also indoors so it's pretty illogical to play it for a top player when they're meant to be in the middle-east 1 week later.

[Marcus1979]

Tokyo used to kick start the early indoor season ie Tokyo, Paris and Antwerp were the events most players went to back then.


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[laurie]

Originally Posted by Marcus1979

Tokyo used to kick start the early indoor season ie Tokyo, Paris and Antwerp were the events most players went to back then.


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True. Looking forward to attending the final later today and the semis had more people. But Doha and Dubai makes outdoor hardcourt season far too long and proves WTA is obsessed with money.

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[somethingkinda]

Originally Posted by Zhao

empty seats in China? the attendance in Shen Zhen is even better than the attendance in New Haven...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fT4HYbOM4YI

You are so ill informed. You do realize that New Haven's facilities are among one of the largest in the world? Take a crowd of people and put them in a much larger setting and of course the capacity will look unfilled. It's not rocket science.