Kyrgios Gives Five Interesting Ideas To Make Tennis More Entertaining
NewsSaturday, 23 November 2024 at 06:00
Nick Kyrgios will return to tennis in 2025, and the Australian player has five ideas for improving the sport.
Kyrgios is set to play just his second tournament in the last two years at next season's Brisbane International after being sidelined for a lengthy period with severe wrist and ankle injuries that threatened to end his career.
The 29-year-old had a wrist reconstruction done and was told by the surgeon before that his chances of playing professional tennis again afterward were about 15%, but he has recovered well enough to confirm a return next season.
Kyrgios went into commentary this year while injured, carrying out the role at the Australian Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open. He received many positive reviews for his insights during matches.
How good Kyrgios showed he can be on commentary makes some frustrated about how volatile the former Wimbledon runner-up is on social media. Andrea Petkovic slammed him for "misogynist nonsense" after a comment he made about Jannik Sinner's girlfriend Anna Kalinskaya.
The Australian was in a thoughtful mood during an episode of The Sit-Down Podcast, giving five ideas he believes would make tennis more engaging for fans worldwide.
1. Have All Grand Slam Matches Be Three Sets Until The Quarterfinals
Kyrgios believes the potential for upsets in the early rounds would be increased if men's singles matches at Grand Slams were reduced to best-of-three sets.
"I think best-of-three (sets) up until the quarterfinals, and from then on it's best-of-five. That's what I would immediately change at a Grand Slam. If you made it best-of-three (sets) up until the quarterfinals, you'd see some guys break through to the quarterfinals, but then obviously the better players would end up winning best-of-five."
"And the first week would be more exciting... How many times have we seen one of the best players in the draw lose the first set and you're just like, he's gonna come back and win it anyway?"
2. Only Mixed Doubles At Combined 1000 Events
Kyrgios thinks tennis is missing an opportunity by playing men's doubles and women's doubles at Masters 1000 tournaments instead of mixed doubles.
"What other sport can you get your favourite female athlete and your favourite male athlete competing on the same side of the net, for good prize money? It's not possible. Like, you don't see it in any other sport really."
"I've had the honour of playing with Serena and Venus (Williams). I would have loved to have played with Ash Barty at some stage. I think she was by far one of the most talented female players to ever play the game. I think we would have done some damage on the court, for sure."
3. Mic up the Players
The seven-time ATP titlist believes it is absurd that tennis does not follow sports like the NBA and have the players mic'ed up to hear what is going through their minds during matches.
"I would have players mic'ed up, as well. I think if you watch the NBA, the uniform or kit that they wear, they professionally put like a mic inside the shirt around the collar, so you can't feel it."
“Not doing that (in tennis) is being absurd for me – why would you not have like Novak or Alcaraz mic'ed up to hear what they're saying? "Even before the points, you see some of these amazing athletes – I do it myself sometimes – before a big point, they're talking to themselves."
4. Shake-Up Commentary
Kyrgios does not like how critical some commentators are and thinks more voices who understand the modern game are needed.
"I'm not a very critical commentator. I don't like when commentators beat down (on players) or are too critical, because it's not easy out there, in today's day and age, the game's so physical."
"Tennis commentating right now needs a bit of a shake-up, I think. I guess when you've really played, and you understand the Futures and the Challengers, like how many players there are on a global scale, (you understand) how hard it is to actually make it into the top 128 players to make a Grand Slam."
5. Engage New Fans
The 2022 Wimbledon finalist also argues that the tennis media needs to understand how to entertain a younger audience to attract new fans.
"When someone turns on the TV, they might not know – we're not talking about the fans that have followed the sport for 20 years – we're talking about new fans and bringing them to the game. They're not going to know anything about these players."
"So the commentating needs to be up-to-date, I guess, in a way. It needs to be, like, kind of how the generation is now. They can't concentrate for more than a couple of minutes, so it needs to be loud, it needs to be energetic for a 20-second, 30-second (bit) and that might grab a new fan."
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