Gerard Pique is back to proposing changes to tennis but this time in quite a radical way as the former soccer star thinks it’s time for tennis to completely revamp and fasten up its format.
Seven years ago, the ITF struck a stunning 25-year, 3-billion-worth deal with Pique’s investment group Kosmos.
Following the deal, some major changes were made to the Davis Cup, including the removal of traditional home and away ties and having one particular date for the competition in the calendar.
That didn’t sit well at all with some legends and tennis purists.
And only five years, the two sides ended their deal.
Now Pique is shedding light on why their partnership came to an end so prematurely.
According to the former FC Barcelona star, tennis would be much more entertaining to audiences if there was only one serve and AD being removed.
Pique: People don’t watch a long game with several deuces
“We tried to change certain things, but there’s no way. The ITF doesn’t want to change anything,” the former Barcelona centre-back said during his conversation with Real Madrid legend Iker Casillas.
“Why do you serve twice in tennis? It’s 30 extra seconds of someone bouncing the ball. People don’t want to see that.
“They also don’t want to watch a game with deuce-advantage-deuce-advantage for five minutes. There should be a golden point at 40-40.
“Tennis needs to evolve to adapt to the current speed and attract those young people who are tempted to watch many other things like HBO or Netflix.”
Several years ago, tennis made some changes to doubles when a deciding point was introduced at 40/40 and a match tie-break for a third set.
When it comes to singles, a quicker format has only been tested at the NextGen ATP Finals, where sets are played to four games.
However, there haven’t been any indications that the tennis officials will make any major changes to scoring format in singles on the Tour.
Tennis World USA