ATP

  Players like Sinner, Fritz and DeMinaur deserve a ton of credit for playing Davis Cup after the ATP Finals. This proves there is heart at the top of the sport. However, the ATP season is over now and I have to say, it was a little too much of  a small group of players to finsih off. Even the Next Gen ATP Finals are not even until Dec. 18th. It just proves that even though the main tour has closed shop, there are plenty of Challengers still going on.


 So not only is the season not over when we say it is, a lot of important things are overlooked when we try to turn the players at the top of the sport into the Dallas Cowwboys. Tennis is different all around and the current format of the tour has done two things all at once. The top players are getting all the limelight as we wear them all out, ensuring we never have champions like Roger, Rafa and Nole again. No one seems to be looking at the risk of promoting the few over the many as the tour begins to count its Saudi money.

 The top players on the ATP tour played The Olympics, Laver Cup, and Davis Cup along with the Masters 1000s and the Grand Slams. That is a tour onto itslef and the saturation there leads even the biggest tennis junkies to get bored of some franfly uninspiring characters. If all the sport of tennis offered was dopers, abusers, Russians and one America wearing Hugo Boss clothes, I would never be a fan. Hugo Boss dressed all the Nazi's by the way.

 Having the ladies of the WTA finsih off in Saudi Arabia, with the crowd blacked out so, like in China, you can't tell no one is there, was weird. Having to deal with Jannick Sinner's failed doping tests was weird. And having the top players of the sports complain that they are working too hard is weird. It is fine that tennis is full of wealthy people who don't necesarily need anymore money. But the country club playboys come from every country and it is quite easy  for it to seem like the powers that be just perpetuate this instead making any rules.  

 The upcoming Aussie Open 2025 will tell us a lot. Will the tour recover from a long year in time ? Will the AO25 actually be the start of the year, or will the tour be a little sleepy at the start of the year ? Will Jannick Sinner ever wear out ? The number two seed at the AO will be Taylor Fritz, followed by Sasha Zverev. Can Fritz or Zverev win a Grand Slam or will those trophies go to Sinner and Alcaraz again ? The larger question looming is, are these players combined as interesting as one of the Big 3 ? I don't think they are and I think 2025 should see the ATP  doing a better job of promoting all the tournaments below the Masters 1000 level.

Greg Gunther

"Consolidated Break by Greg Gunther"

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