Tennis Re-imagined
My wife watches the US Open on TV and, since we live in an apartment, I see and hear a lot of it. I have to say, tennis is an archaic disaster.
They often show shots of the fans who look like they are struggling to stay awake. And why not? One match went on for over five hours. Five hours showing two guys batting a ball back and forth! Talk about excitement!
When you see shots of the crowd at a football game, the fans are cheering and having fun. Same with hockey and basketball. Even baseball fans sometimes get excited.
To rescue tennis from its 18th century rules, I propose to drag it into the 21st century by changing the rules.
1: scoring will use ordinary numbers: 1, 2, 3, etc not the current incomprehensible system.
2: the winner of a match will be the player who wins five sets.
3: a set will last five minutes. At the end of the set, the player with the most points wins. If the set ends in a tie there will be a three minute overtime and the player with the most overtime points will be the winner of the set.
Under these new rules, the longest a set will last is 45 minutes plus any overtime play, a vast improvement over today's situation.
Another huge advantage of the new rules: the non-stop babbling of the TV commentators will be drastically reduced.
Who else endorses these changes?
Sacrilege, Hank! Next thing, you'll suggest players wear color at Wimbledon.
Less boring because there are more players and there is a lot of stuff to do whereas tennis has two players doing the same thing over and over. Baseball is boring but nearly to the extent tennis is