[nctennis500]

https://www.theringer.com/2018/1/27/16936458/tennis-modernization-rule-changes-australian-open-2018

 

[NYCTennisRep]

Let's break this down to its essence: the tennis federations don't have the balls to tell Nadal to pick his underwear out of his sweaty ass on his own time, so now they have to punish the entire game.

 

[pov]

I don't know of any sport that has become more popular in the past twenty years because of changes to the rules.

 

[Sam L]

So what is changing? I read through the article and nothing went in my head, one of those days.

I don't know of any sport that has become more popular in the past twenty years because of changes to the rules.

Arguably Figure Skating, I wasn’t a fan of the new judging system but as a competitor it makes more sense and it also pushed the athletes to do more difficult elements like more quads and backloading.

 

[Spiritof42]

"But WTA CEO Steve Simon might just be the most radical figure of all, a champion of short matches, which he believes should be between 60 and 90 minutes. “The attention spans of the audience today is shrinking,” he has argued. “Everybody wants it in very short nuggets and to see somebody sit for two to three hours and watch anything anymore is getting harder and harder.”"

:facepalm:

Someone needs to stop Simon before he destroys women's tennis as we know it

So what is changing? I read through the article and nothing went in my head, one of those days.

From the second paragraph:

"At the end of 2017, the ITF unveiled a handful of Grand Slam modifications that would go into effect in 2018 and 2019: an increased time limit between points; an adjustment to tournament-withdrawal policies, in the hopes of encouraging withdrawal for injured players and limiting the number of retirements during matches; and, much to Rodionova’s chagrin, a strict enforcement of the five-minute pre-match warm up, in an attempt to shorten schedules. Then there is the attempt to shake up the first week of Grand Slams: starting in 2019, the ITF intends to reduce number of seeded players in the 128-player slam singles draws from 32 to 16, as was the case until 2001."

 

[nctennis500]

And, if memory serves, Nadal for one is not in favor of the new rule.

 

[snappywrist]

Nadal can dowhatever the heck he wants because he brings in the crowd and the money. Just the way markets work as they should.