ATP Tennis World tour comes to an end
The ATP World Tour Finals which is the season-ending event held in London, is set to undergo some changes this year, in order to clarify the qualification system in order to improve tournament scheduling. Earlier, the audiences and fans faced were left stranded when the event made its debut in London in November, 2009. Both players and spectators were left on their own to figure out the identity of the players who had qualified from the group stages.
This year though, all the information regarding the results form the latest round-robin matches and standings will be clearly visible to one and all. With improved measures coming in, all matches will be displayed on the big screens.
The match in the evening will start at 8pm in order to avoid problems related to public transportation for the fans.
A change in time means that the matches will start 45 minutes earlier than they did in 2009. Earlier, the spectators could not stay till the end of the match if they were to catch the last train home.
ATP Executive Chairman and President Adam Helfant in an official statement clarified, “It was a combination of factors which prompted us to change the start time,"
"We listened to feedback from the public, fans, players and media and thought it made sense to move it."
The event last year was termed as a roaring success as 8 of the best players in the world showcased their talent in London. Some brilliant matches were witnessed in the doubles finale too.
Last years event was hosted by the city of Shanghai, China. The matches were staged in indoor tennis courts with a record attendance of 265,000 people during the 8 days of the tournament.
Apart from transport problems faced by fans during the event, there were many other issues. After the end of round-robin matches, Juan Martin del Potro after rebating Roger Federer waited for 15 minutes on the court to find out if he had made it to the semi-finals.
After which Andy Murray, who was watching the match on TV wrote this on his Twitter account, "Anyone know what's going on?"
Chris Kermode, who is event's managing director, said he does not expect to go through the same problems this time round when the tournament kicks off on November 21st.
Kermode added that the information will be displayed on big screens and we will make sure that no such confusions arise this year.
"Actually we did know but there was a process to follow. The structure of how that decision is made has been changed now.
"What that situation showed was that we need to tell our story better to the fans that are in the arena in terms of how the round robin system works and the relevance of each match, which we will do this year."
Last years tournament was won by Russia's Nikolay Davydenko who beat Argentina’s Juan Martin Del Potro in a lopsided final, Del Potro however was delighted to be in the league of top 8 players after winning his first Grand Slam of the year after beating Federer in the final.
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