Well, it's my first post here so I'll try to be accurate enough.
Wimbledon is one of the biggest tennis tournaments in the world, maybe even the most important one, with all due respect to the others. Everyone knows about its tradition, from all white, behavior of the fans, players, people in charge.
However, lately, we've could see something that is against common sense. There were two very good semifinals played on Friday, July 13th. First Kevin Anderson and John Isner, and then Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal. Everyone who loves this sport can tell you how much they enjoyed in the second one, in the 52nd match between great rivals.
Instead of enjoying the whole spectacle that worth every penny, fans on the Centre court and ones that watched at home had to get disappointed. The match was interrupted in the third set (2:1 for Novak). Reason - a law that forbids playing after 23.00 local time.
Law is law, and you can't "bend the rules", but what you definitely can and should do is make rules good enough that your players don't get exhausted on the court. Anderson won first semifinal 26:24 in the fifth set, cause in the decisive set there is no tiebreak at all. Both players could barely stand on their feet after, the winner didn't even look happy and both agreed on one thing - CHANGE OF THE RULES. Put the tie-break in there, at least on 10:10 if you want a drama. Eight years ago Isner won Mahut 70:68 also in the fifth set. It just isn't human!
And, to get back to one of the greatest rivalry in tennis, the match continued in Saturday, under the roof, which is another different topic, and Djokovic got the win, and the finals. And then, Sunday, new match, final Novak vs Kevin.
Instead of a final worthy duel, Anderson was exhausted, slow movement, a lot of errors, especially in the first two sets. All that, with Djokovic playing extraordinary, got Novak the well-deserved trophy and road to Top 10.
But, if there was a tie-break in the fifth set, the Friday match between Isner and Anderson would've finished much before 8pm local time, the result might have been different, but the crucial thing is players would be well rested. Novak could finish the match earlier, maybe Nadal would've won, who knows, easy to talk from this perspective.
There is one point and it's really clear - use common sense. Give fans a chance to enjoy true drama like in the second semifinal. Give players respect they deserve. Tradition is good and everyone respects that, but sometimes it is just better to do things that make more sense.
Hope you like it, and please, feel free to give your suggestion, comments, ideas and discussions.
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