Message to the USTA (Take 2)

Dear United States Tennis Association,

My name is Sean, and I am a tennis fan. My father played in college and taught me how to play when I was young. I was a member of my high school tennis team, and although I have not touched my tennis racket in nearly a year, I enjoy following and watching the Grand Slam events.

Naturally, I watched Sunday’s Wimbledon final between Roger Federer and Andy Roddick. With the match tied at 6-6 in the fifth set, I thought to myself, I would love to see a tiebreaker right now. As the match continued with Roddick and Federer tied at 8-8, 11-11, and 14-14, I thought, this is terrible and lacking drama; I would much rather have seen the match end 30-60 minutes ago via a tiebreaker.

I hope that you can sense my sarcasm in the last paragraph. If the Federer-Roddick match took place at the US Open, it would have ended with a fifth set tiebreaker. The US Open is the only Grand Slam tournament with this format. I mentioned my displeasure with the fifth set tiebreaker before, but maybe you weren’t reading my blog at that time. Based on Sunday’s exciting Wimbledon final, I think it’s time to reconsider how US Open matches conclude. Get rid of the fifth set tiebreaker (or third set on the women’s side) and follow the lead of your Grand Slam compatriots!

Sincerely,
Sean


P.S. The semi-final match between Elena Dementieva and Serena Williams that ended with an 8-6 final set was also lousy!

Message to the USTA

Earlier today (depending on where you live – I think), Roger Federer defeated the 49th-ranked Janko Tipsarevic 6-7 (5), 7-6 (1), 5-7, 6-1, 10-8 to advance to the fourth round of the Australian Open. It sounds like it was an amazing match, which unfortunately I missed because I was asleep. Anyway, perhaps you noticed the final score of the fifth set: 10-8. There was so much drama, tension and energy on every point. I’m sure the crowd went crazy. However, this type of ending could never happen at the US Open. You see, as I mentioned in September, if the score is tied 6-6 at the end of the third set in a women’s match or fifth set in a men’s match, the winner is determined by a tie-breaker. What a terrible way to end a match! If anyone at the USTA, United States Tennis Association, is reading this, please change the US Open to follow the same format as the other three tennis majors. Thank you.

P.S. The fourth set of the Lleyton Hewitt-Marcos Baghdatis match airing live on ESPN2 is also amazing, especially since they are playing at 3:30 AM Melbourne time.