It took all of five games on Tuesday at the Next Gen ATP Finals for the numerous innovations being tested to play a major factor.
During the first match, Russian Daniil Medvedev served a deciding deuce point at 40/40, 2-3. Win it, and Medvedev would force a tie-break and still have a chance to win the opening set. But lose it, and he’d be down a set against countryman Karen Khachanov.
Medvedev eventually lost the point, and therefore the set. But the moment made clear just how much the innovations and rule changes would dominate Day 1 of the inaugural tournament, which saw a plethora of potential future changes tested for the first time on the ATP World Tour.
Perhaps the most noticeable innovation: no lines people were on court and an automated voice from Hawk-Eye Live called balls “out” and shouted “fault” when serves landed outside the box.
“I really liked it,” Medvedev said of the electronic line calling. “It was very fun for me, and, it’s something new and fresh. Especially at the end of the season, when you are tired, for me it was really cool to play with these rules.”
Khachanov also OK’d Hawk-Eye Live, but the Russian suggested a slightly more personal touch for the system.
“I think it’s better that all umpires record their voices,” Khachanov said. “You hear the same voice, looks like he’s calling the outs. But this is definitely a good thing.”
In-match coaching also debuted to positive reviews as coaches and players discussed strategy live on broadcast television. American Jared Donaldson was the lone player of the eight #NextGenATP finalists who did not utilise the end-of-set conferences.
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Khachanov sought guidance after falling behind two sets to one, and his coach, Galo Blanco, cited the statistics on his tablet while communicating the way forward.
“The difference Karen, is look, in the third set you did 16 unforced errors. And in between the first and the second, you did 10. So that’s the main thing,” Blanco said. “When you are controlling the point, you are kind of rushing and selecting the wrong shot and you are missing. Try to find the balance in between being aggressive and going for the shot and not playing passive.”
Denis Shapovalov, who lost to South Korea’s Hyeon Chung, also chatted with his coach and eyed statistics during breaks in the match.
“It’s definitely another cool feature to have. I always thought, ‘Why can’t we look at stats during the match?’” Shapovalov said. “So it’s good to look at the basics, too, just your serve percentage, unforced errors, winners, just stuff like that.”
The ability to view the stats had a direct impact during Medvedev’s win against Khachanov. The victorious Russian said he altered where he was serving after viewing Hawk-Eye data on direction of serves.
“For [Khachanov] it was totally the same percentage of serving either wide or T. For me, it was not,” he said. “Before the fourth set, in my mind I was, like, ‘OK, I need to change it a little bit.’ I don’t know if it worked, but finally I won, didn’t lose the serve, so I guess I made those things right.”
Speaking of serves, more than a few of them slapped the net cord and landed in the service box and were played by the #NextGenATP players, except for one instance during which a chair umpire showed his human side.
During the Medvedev-Khachanov match, a serve hit the net cord for the first time in the tournament, and chair umpire Carlos Bernardes instinctively called a let, before calling another let because the #NextGenATP players are to play all serves that hit the net cords.
“I liked the let rule, because it did help me a lot on the match point. It was really lucky,” said Borna Coric, whose final serve during his straight-sets win against Jared Donaldson clipped the tape. “I think it should also be in the other tournaments, because I think we are having many arguments about what is it a let.”
The shot clock debuted with little trouble. Italian wild card Gianluigi Quinzi was called for a time violation, but it was at the start of the match, and the left-hander shrugged it off.
But the shot-clock innovation did weigh on players’ minds. Coric found himself rushing to the service line because he was worried about receiving a time violation. The Croatian also felt more tired than usual during the match.
“I didn’t want to get the warning,” Coric said. “Also my coach told me that sometimes I would serve and I had still 15 seconds left. So I just don’t like that pressure. I mean, it’s also good in some ways, because it does speed up the game. But I just need to get used to that so that maybe I can start my whole motion with seven or eight seconds left, not on maybe 15.”
The free movement of fans on the sides of the court earned mixed reviews, and others called for more time to compete with the new rules before offering judgement on everything.
It has been, after all, only one day of the Next Gen ATP Finals, and there will be many more experiments and comments, perhaps a few more net cords, but definitely more discussions about the tournament’s innovations.
