Talk About Tennis 2.0

We must remember the point of seeding is Not Truth and Justice, it is to maximize the interest, therefore revenues, for the tournament..what we don't want is to have Nadal meeting Djokovic in an early round, when there is a smaller audience..from that point of view, I cannot see that there are more than 4 players who need to be kept apart till the end, in any tournament..

It's funny that on TC just now, they said "If the seeds play out, Djokovic will play Rafa in the quarters and Alcaraz in the semis.". Everyone has forgotten that he's not the 3 seed.

Kevin

The rationale behind going from 16 seeds to 32 was that, at the time, drawing the 17th ranked player was indeed a huge difference from drawing the 33rd ranked player. You seldom had a truly flukey quarterfinalist, or even a finalist. Chris Lewis (Wimby 1983 finalist) was very much an exception.
Now, if you ask somebody "who would you rather play, Pablo Carreño Busta or Tommy Paul?" (currents 17 & 33) they will shrug. Maybe they would rather play one of another depending on surface, but the difference is menial. It will boil down to the cereal they had that morning.
In the WTA, it would be Leylah or Elise Mertens. Roughly equally dangerous players, adjusting for variables of surface.
So the reason for 32 seeds has been slowly fading away, with this parity.

There is another insidious purpose behind seeding...to encourage players to play more..nothing to do with any specific tournament...

Tennis will never go back to 16 seeds

Sara Sorribes Tormo and Clara Tauson are out

ashkor87 wrote: ↑Sat May 21, 2022 4:50 pm There is another insidious purpose behind seeding...to encourage players to play more..nothing to do with any specific tournament...

That's a good point. I gather that the #34 player has more incentives to play two weeks prior to a slam.

JTContinental wrote: ↑Sat May 21, 2022 7:12 pm Sara Sorribes Tormo and Clara Tauson are out

Didn't there used to be penalties for withdrawing after the draw is released? I remember this used to be a big deal.

That 's nice. I guess that's part of the reason why I recognize so few of the qualifiers' names.

ti-amie wrote: ↑Sat May 21, 2022 10:55 pm

JTContinental wrote: ↑Sat May 21, 2022 7:12 pm Sara Sorribes Tormo and Clara Tauson are out

Didn't there used to be penalties for withdrawing after the draw is released? I remember this used to be a big deal.

Players also pretty much never quit during matches in the past (they call it 'retire' today, as it's a more comfortable term than 'quit')... Today, there are as many 'retirements' and withdrawals and Medical Time-Outs in ONE TOURNAMENT as there were in an ENTIRE SEASON 30 or 40 years ago.

Things change. And not necessarily for the better.

.

JTContinental wrote:Sara Sorribes Tormo and Clara Tauson are out

What? Injuries?


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find Jabeur's defeat very puzzling.. saw the entire match, she didnt seem 'present'..

meganfernandez wrote: ↑Sun May 22, 2022 12:11 pm

JTContinental wrote:Sara Sorribes Tormo and Clara Tauson are out

What? Injuries?


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you made a good call there on Muguruza... I thought it was a tad brave but you were right...

Gauff and McNally are both playing doubles at Roland Garros... but not together.