ATP: Advance at the NextGen Finals: No more towel servants!

The organizers of the ATP NextGen Finals in Milan have announced an innovation for the next edition. In autumn 2018, for example, the players’ own towels will be available. The ball children are to be relieved thereby and no longer function as servants of the unhygienic cloths.

As ATP chairman Chris Kermode announced at a press conference last year’s winner Hyeon Chung was also present on the fringes of the Rome Masters, the change is intended to stop a development in professional tennis that is unpleasant for many.

In the future, players can put their towels on specially designed stands and use them between the dots. However, the shot clock of 25 seconds must still be maintained at all times.

“This tournament has done just the right thing to provide a global platform for a younger generation,” said Kermode on Wednesday. Tennis is a sport that is conscious of tradition, and that must be maintained in the future. “The new event gives us the opportunity to test small changes.”

The feedback on last year’s premiere had been positive throughout, but now a larger sample had to be collected in the sense of several editions of the tournament in order to confirm the meaningfulness of the changes.

In addition to the towel racks, a further adaptation is to be made: The warm-up periods at the event in Milan will be reduced by another minute. Instead of the five minutes they have had so far, the four minutes will be enough to get fit for a match in the future.

The ATP NextGen Finals are to be held in Milan by 2021. The 2018 event is endowed with prize money of 1,335,000 US dollars. Click here for the current U21 rankings.