Pan Am Performances Suggest Women Should RAISE, Not Lower Tin by Ted Gross July 12, 2015
The recent PSA announcement that the women's tour will try a 17-inch tin in September should be reversed.
Instead of dropping the tin from the current height of 19 inches to the
pro men's standard height of 17, the women's game should raise the tin
to 21 inches.
In addition, the women should consider going to a faster ball, reducing racquet-head size and instituting hand-out scoring.
Because right now the matches are too short.
On Sunday in Toronto, in the women's semis of the Pan American
Games--an event held once every four years--you had the number one
player in
the US versus the number one player in Canada.
The match went four games.
The first game lasted 4 minutes.
The second game lasted 4 minutes.
The third game lasted 5 minutes.
The fourth game, a veritable marathon, lasted 7 minutes.
That's it. A worldwide stage, the IOC president running around, your showcase four-game semifinal lasts twenty minutes?
By contrast, in a Pan Am men's quarterfinal that also went four games,
between Shawn Delierre and Todd Harrity earlier in the day:
The first game lasted 12 minutes.
The second game lasted 11 minutes.
The third game lasted 22 minutes.
The fourth game lasted 15 minutes.
This men's quarter is typical of how the sport is meant to be played.
Few cheap winners, fewer dumb errors, and plenty of grinding.
Nicol David grinds, as do a few other players on the women's tour. You occasionally see a long match.
But the current women's style of play, combined with over-the-top
racquet technology and a tin that is already too low, has strayed too
far from the original intent of the sport.
