[Just like heaven]

Originally Posted by finishingmove

CTRL + F: "Ljubicic".

Credibility : 0.

Exit.

[Raiden]

It's a travesty that needs to be rectified.

ATP is perpetrating the tennis-schedule equivalent of screwing/ràpe.

[Ben D.]

it's a nonsense, or a bold move to get rid of Paris.

[Alex999]

the ATP did create this mess. the only thing is I don't know what the solution is. I'm strongly against getting rid of tournaments tho. maybe nothing should be mandatory, simply let players play whatever they want to. fans will suffer but let it be. I'd rather see that then players tanking matches, pretending with injuries or really being injured.

It's funny that guys here predicted so many things right. i.e Fed out of Paris was everywhere... etc. Nole last year after the USO win didn't give a f/uck for anything including the WTF, he just kinda showed up for some tournaments, and that was it.

every year at the end of the season we have the same story. tired, uninspired, injured tennis pros. Again, my solution would be to simply let players play whatever they want to. no mandatory events.

[duong]

Guy Forget, Paris-Bercy new director, hopes Bercy to be played in february in 2014, he says the ATP board will decide in 2 weeks.

If they don't give him that, he asked the week between Bercy and the WTF to be back.

http://www.welovetennis.fr/atp-paris-bercy/57733-forget-on-essaie-de-bouger

Originally Posted by Alex999

every year at the end of the season we have the same story. tired, uninspired, injured tennis pros.

it's not the problem here : never during the year do top-players play 3 hardcourt tournaments 3 weeks in a row, especially such high level tournaments, in the beginning or the end of the year. And Basel and Valencia used to be played by these players when their schedule was better.

Originally Posted by Alex999

Again, my solution would be to simply let players play whatever they want to. no mandatory events.

that would be a huge backward movement to what the Tour was in the 70s and 80s, and no I strongly disagree that it would be good, the Tour would all be about money and you would not see the top-players regularly together. The introduction of the MAsters 1000 tournaments (thanks to the top-players' ask in the "parking lot" during the US Open 1988) was a great improvement of the Tour.

Anyway this proposal is not under way.

The one which is under way is to have less mandatory tournaments, and clearly Paris-Bercy has been the one targetted to lose its MS1000 status for long.

And anyway, the decision to suppress the week between Paris-Bercy and the WTF solved absolutely nothing on these topics. Ljubicic (and Fed before) was absolutely right on these points : it solves nothing, it's a purely cosmetic change which raises more problems than has advantages. The only beneficiaries of that suppression are the ones who dislike indoor tennis, notably Nadal. And it's very bad for fans who attend these tournaments.

But yes, this is just an intermediate change, there are other plans under way in next years, and these plans, which all come from Nadal and Djokovic initially, may be considered as better by some of the fans even though indoor tennis will probably be the main victim of these.

[Featherer]

Originally Posted by DJ Soup

I think it's fair that Paris should be the victim tournament, because it also has RG for pete's sake

Originally Posted by Pirata.

London has Queens, Wimbledon and WTF

Originally Posted by DJ Soup

England invented the game, fair enough

Tennis was invented in France
(and was played Indoors at first, so not on grass.)
"Tennis" comes from the French tenez.
"Racquet" comes from raquette.
"Deuce" comes from à deux le jeu.
"Love" is widely believed to come from l'oeuf.
The convention of numbering scores "15", "30" and "40" comes from quinze, trente and quarante, which to French ears makes a euphonious sequence.

[Sophocles]

Dreadful decision but I'm not against moving Bercy to February as long as its status is maintained.

[Looner]

Originally Posted by finishingmove

CTRL + F: "Ljubicic".

Credibility : 0.

Exit.

Originally Posted by Just like heaven

Oh, how surprising to find Nadulle fans agreeing on this.

[Chirag]

I really hope Paris recovers from this stupidity .It really is my favourate masters 1000 event after Rome .I dont want it in Feb but getting that week back will be awesome

[duong]

Originally Posted by Looner

Oh, how surprising to find Nadulle fans agreeing on this.

not all Nadal-fans : Just like Heaven has a specific allergy to Ljubicic.

[niff]

Originally Posted by duong

not all Nadal-fans : Just like Heaven has a specific allergy to Ljubicic.

Only because of comments he's made about Nadal

[duong]

Originally Posted by niff

Only because of comments he's made about Nadal

that's called love

[Featherer]

The reduction of the season schedule not only affected Paris this year, but also Basel, Valencia and Petersburg f.i.
My assumtion goes as follows:
The ATP doesn't benefit from cutting the season. They just met the wishes of the top players.
We remember the case "MonteCarlo" (mandatory?, 1000pts?). It's not that the ATP didn't already try to relieve the schedule of the top players. But it's not just up to them!
The tournaments have a say! Contracts have to be made that both sides agree with.
What we see currently is a diplomatic policy, probably sort of an interim compromise between the ATP and the tournaments.
Guy Forget now put's it that way that he hopes for Paris to be played in February in 2014 and the ATP board has to decide on it.
Well, that can't be the whole truth.
The ATP board can't change dates of tournaments simply at will.
(Otherwise they could move the Paris Masters to mid July, as well. )
There needs to be consensus among the ATP and several other tournaments.
In this case it's those taking place in fall as well as those originally taking place in February!
There are also contracts with the London WTF.
And there is the Asian swing after the USO, which is mostly outdoors.
How to play the London WTF (indoors) directly after it? (I refer to the plans for 2014.)
Both, ATP and tournaments were not ready for so very big changes to the schedule.
Maybe in 2014, but that depends on how the negotiations procede.

I personally find this Paris-London situation/constellation this year quite interesting.
Indoor tennis is not so much about endurance but about movement and focus.
Maybe Djokovic and Murray treat Paris and London as one step this year, try to win both, gather steam in Paris, step it up for London.
Maybe this new date is even better for Paris than the previous date was, when the top guys regularly tanked.
I'm curious what will happen at the Paris Masters this year.

It's perfectly possible that the whole idea of this 2012 schedule wasn't so stupid.
If you want to reduce the schedule, it doesn't go without effects. ("From chipping come chips.")
They decided to share these effects among Paris, Basel, Valencia, Petersburg, etc.
Other decisions would have caused other problems.
It's easy to critizise everything, but how to make it better and satisfy every side?

[DJ Soup]

Originally Posted by Featherer

Tennis was invented in France
(and was played Indoors at first, so not on grass.)
"Tennis" comes from the French tenez.
"Racquet" comes from raquette.
"Deuce" comes from à deux le jeu.
"Love" is widely believed to come from l'oeuf.
The convention of numbering scores "15", "30" and "40" comes from quinze, trente and quarante, which to French ears makes a euphonious sequence.

you are correct and I'm wrong for using the word 'invent'. However it was the UK that brought up the modern game.

[Sanya]

That was stupid decision, I can`t believe it was ever voted for. And moving Paris to be played in February wouldn`t solve the questions, but create new ones.