Your “Open to Change” In-Depth piece (Aug. 29-Sept. 4 issue) about professional tennis stated “... in a sport like tennis that has seen one rule change, the tiebreaker, in more than a century.”
In fact, tennis has adopted several important on-court and organizational rule changes in the past 100 years besides the tiebreaker. Among them, the foot-fault rule was made less stringent, foreign seedings were discontinued, a Code of Conduct with penalties was enacted, the WTA created age-eligibility rules for whiz kids, appearance money (guarantees) were legalized at ATP International Series tournaments, the ATP has recently adopted no-ad scoring in doubles, and bathroom breaks and injury time-outs were included in the rules.
What matters is not the quantity of changes but the quality. For example, the WTA’s “Best 17” ranking system and the ATP’s “Mandatory 13-Best 5” ranking system both throw out a player’s worst results. Imagine not counting the New York Yankees’ worst 30 games, and you quickly see how wrongheaded these changes are. No-ad scoring and tiebreakers in lieu of legitimate deciding sets are other bad changes pro tennis made.
So let’s advocate good changes and stick with good traditions and oppose bad changes and bad traditions with equal fervor.
Paul Fein
Agawam, Mass.
