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Fail To Prepare, Prepare To Fail – How tennis needs to change for the future

By Darren Kenny

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - FEBRUARY 02: Novak Djokovic of Serbia celebrates with the fans after winning the Men's Singles Final match against Dominic Thiem of Austria on day fourteen of the 2020 Australian Open at Melbourne Park on February 02, 2020 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - FEBRUARY 02: Novak Djokovic of Serbia celebrates with the fans after winning the Men's Singles Final match against Dominic Thiem of Austria on day fourteen of the 2020 Australian Open at Melbourne Park on February 02, 2020 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images) /
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Norway’s Casper Ruud communicates with his coach via headset on November 7, 2019 during his group stage match against Australia’s Alex De Minaur as part of the Next Generation ATP Finals at the Allianz Cloud Court in Milan. (Photo by Miguel MEDINA / AFP) (Photo by MIGUEL MEDINA/AFP via Getty Images)
Norway’s Casper Ruud communicates with his coach via headset on November 7, 2019 during his group stage match against Australia’s Alex De Minaur as part of the Next Generation ATP Finals at the Allianz Cloud Court in Milan. (Photo by Miguel MEDINA / AFP) (Photo by MIGUEL MEDINA/AFP via Getty Images) /

Attention Please

Tech-savvy millennials and Gen Zs are consuming nearly all of their digital content away from the living room TV. Thus, the streaming of movies, TV shows, sport, and e-sports has become a huge industry in itself. Attention spans are shortening, and long tennis matches with no official end time means viewers zone out of matches and switch to another entertainment option, thus losing potential viewership and fan engagement.

When Roger Federer was dominating the sport in the mid to late 2000s, platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and Twitch weren’t even a thing. Nowadays, instant gratification has become the status quo.

The good news for the ATP is now having a digital platform to market their players, something which was limited a decade or so ago. If you look at the UFC, the biggest MMA organization in the world, they have done a tremendous job of promoting their athlete’s personal brand on social media, by telling the story of the fighters through their mini-documentaries and embedded series. The same goes for Formula 1, which has gained a huge number of new fans thanks to their extremely successful Netflix Docuseries: Drive to Survive.

Let’s look at Nick Kyrgios for example. The Australian showman is a walking box office, and not just because he bombs aces and obliterates forehands. He mesmerizes crowds and puts people in seats because you never truly know what you will get with him. He has a personality like no other currently on the ATP Tour. Love him or loathe him, you will always tune in to his matches.

The ATP should adopt this model and start telling the stories of the players vying for the top of the sport. The more a person feels a personal connection with an athlete, the more likely they are to follow their story and tune into their matches. As important as forehands are, when it comes to fan engagement and viewership, what fans are really looking for are personalities and rivalries to follow.

On-Court Coaching

What happens when a set finishes and the players take a break? Well, so do you. You either change the channel or you go to the kitchen for a snack and get distracted.  The ATP needs to get with the times and allow players on-court coaching at the end of each set.

One problem we see often in tennis is a top seed losing the first set in a slam encounter, only for that player to find out the pattern of the match and adapting their game plan to ultimately come out on top in 4 or 5 sets. On-court coaching would not only be hugely entertaining, but it would also allow lower-ranked players the opportunity to change tactics and throw the kitchen sink at their higher-ranked opponent. Upsets create headlines. Headlines sell papers.

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