A Leaf out of the Tennis Book
I Have of course been watching Wimbledon during the course of the last week and particularly liked the assured performance from the only British hope Andy Murray yesterday.
It got me thinking about the structure and model of professional Tennis, something I have always been an advocate of.
Professional Tennis players are selected for tournaments (of which there are many!) based on ranking. I am wonderng whether it is about time that professional pool moved to this model?
It would mean World Ranking points being awarded for every tournament. The amount of ranking points would be determined by the quality of the tournament, factors like prize money, number of high ranked players and media coverage would of curse come into account.
I am sure it could work though if the WPA took the initiative, your thoughts?
If all pro tournanemts had a world ranking status then it would be great as long as they were well run. But with only players ranked high enough to be able to enter tournaments then it would mean that lower ranked players wouldn’t be able to beat higher players, and the excitement with it. I guess Daryl Peach’s World Champ win in 2007 would count as that.
Good point Chris, however, there are still opportunities in tennis for the lower ranked players to either qualify or sometimes get a wildcard. Plus players at the top of the rankings have worked hard to achieve those rankings. Shouldn’t new players have to prove themselves anyway?
I always wondered why pool never had a points system in place. Maybe it has something to do with the fractured structure that pool suffers from.
Pool does sadly have a very fragmented structure, this year things have been put in place to try and pull the sport together. There is now an official World Tour with a published ranking list which is a step in the right direction, however I still think this needs to have broader appeal. Four of this years seven scheduled ranking events are in Asia, one in Europe, one in the US and one to be decided (probably Asia again!)