ATP: Do the fans still get enough for their money?

Alexander Zverev was the big winner at the ATP Finals in London. The losers included not only the competitors who had already been eliminated in the preliminary round, but also many spectators.

So Chris Kermode and Craig Tiley had sat down last Thursday in front of the screen of the full cinema hall 10 in London’s O2 Arena to explain why the new ATP Cup is the greatest invention since the discovery of backward running water. 24 teams, three cities, summer in Australia – the head of ATP, Kermode, and the tournament director of the Australian Open, Tiley, left no doubt that the revived World Team Cup is exactly the event the players have been waiting for. And especially the fans.

The former actually seems to be the case: Almost all top players start at a tournament in the first week of the year anyway, then they like to start at an event where the best case is 750 ATP points and a total prize money of 15 million US dollars to win.

What’s more interesting, however, is Tiley’s assumption that hordes of fans will be heading to Australia to accompany their teams across the fifth continent for a week. Especially since the experiences at the ATP Finals, although of course primarily an individual competition, raise questions about whether the price-performance ratio for spectators in tennis is still right.

In the best case 72 pounds plus expenses has cost a ticket for one of the six preliminary days in London – in memory the tennis fans will have remained exactly no single match. Well, maybe Kevin Anderson’s 6-0 and 6-1 win against Kei Nishikori, for which the South African needed a little more than an hour.

Good for the South African, not so good for the paying customers. The sponsors are still lining up at the ATP, Chris Kermode has kept a well-oiled money multiplier running, even more efficient and successful. Not quite so good, that with the exception of the very first day of the season finals in the preliminary round, some to many places in the O2 Arena have remained empty. The reason for this can only be speculated upon.

The level of the matches was, with few exceptions, not worthy of a meeting of the best of the class in world tennis. Alexander Zverev has pointed out that the season has lasted far too long, and certainly rightly so. It’s almost curious that the German was the one who showed the strongest will in the back and deserved to win the tournament.

The atmosphere in the hall was rarely bubbling. In Zverev’s match against Roger Federer for known, therefore ridiculous reasons. Jamie Murray, the only local hero, was able to take the fans away for a few moments, failed with partner Bruno Soares in the preliminary round. But otherwise?

What was missing was Rafael Nadal. Period. With Nadal, the fans know what they paid for, even at the season finale, which the Spaniard has never won. Nadal doesn’t just let matches go like this, the second in the world rankings takes his job seriously every second, looking for solutions even when he doesn’t feel himself and the ball. That Nadal has once again become a victim of the long season and his demanding playing style – this pattern has unfortunately been observed all too often.

On the other hand, the chances that Rafael Nadal will be at the start in early 2020, when the first ATP Cup is to be held in Australia, are not bad. The other big names in tennis have also put themselves at the service of the good cause, praised the event, and Novak Djokovic and John Isner have personally expressed their support in that cinema in London.

Whether the Serbian and US travel agencies already have to refine their arrangements with hotels in Brisbane, Adelaide or Perth remains open. Experience at the end of the season in London confirmed one thing above all else: Good thing it’s a break for now. And it is hard to imagine that at the Davis Cup Final 2019, which, as of now, is to be held in November, the players will rise up like a fountain of youth.