ATP: Blog of the week: Shaking the pillars

Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal played great tennis in Shanghai.This is also because the two of them are running their 2017 campaign without major injury problems.

Who could have imagined this new, old distribution of power when Roger Federer visited his eternal rival and friend Rafael Nadal in Manacor almost exactly one year ago?Federer had already finished the 2016 season long ago, and Nadal had also been handicapped by injuries time and again.

Now they met for the opening of Nadal’s great tennis academy, it was a sentimental reunion of the two grandmasters – with memories of the great times in earlier years and some anecdotes from the past.Or would their careers end rather unspectacularly?

Well – and then there’s the crazy tennis year 2017.It’s not finished yet, but there are still European indoor activities waiting for the fans.There is also the ATP final in London, with the best eight of the season, including Alexander Zverev, the young German.And Dominic Thiem, his Austrian buddy.

But this is already certain: 2017 will go down in history as the year of the great, sensational renaissance of the Federer/Nadal duel.The two of them have just faced each other again in a final, in Shanghai, again with Federer as the winner.

Who wouldn’t be surprised if there would be another showdown between Matador and Maestro in London as well – as if it were the end of this season, which began with a breathtaking fight between the two of them in Melbourne, at the Australian Open.

In 2017, all the forecasts that had been made for the older men Federer and Nadal, and by the way the forecasts of the two superstars themselves, were overshadowed.Federer and Nadal took on the roles that Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray had previously occupied.

For the Serbs and Scotsman, after many years of dogs on the tour, the mental and physical break-in came, surprisingly perhaps not quite, but surprisingly to the extent of the sporting setback.In addition, there were injuries to the two leading figures of the previous year.It remains to be seen whether they will be able to return home as brilliantly as Federer and Nadal.At least in Djokovic’s case, doubts are justified.

Regulatory changes were most recently discussed when it came to the major team competitions in tennis – Davis Cup or Fed Cup.But on the fringes of the masters in Shanghai, in connection with Juan Martin del Potro’s match against Roger Federer, there was also a discussion about how to deal with the injured retreats of professionals.

So far, the player who wasn’t injured was simply waved through without a fight, but the audience went out empty-handed, there was no match.In Shanghai this didn’t happen, Del Potro did not take part in the duel with Federer, despite some doubts.But what if…?

This debate is complex because it raises enormous logistical, formal, financial and organisational issues, includingis also about bonus payments to players.But also about the very basic question of how to deal with this fact in the event of a possible rule change, i. e. the replacement of the original loser for the injured party: That a player may win a tournament that has already been eliminated.

It is common in a group format like the ATP finals that a player who has already lost a game before can win.But in normal tournaments, it would be a shaking of the system’s mainstays.Tennis is a knockout sport, and that’s where it draws most of its appeal from.

It will be interesting to see how the debate develops.