New Rules to End Never-Ending Tennis Match

 

American Andy Roddick knows something about playing in tennis matches that seem to never end.

In 2003, Roddick won an Australian Open quarterfinal that ended with a score of 21-19 in the fifth set. He also lost the 2009 Wimbledon Championship final against Roger Federer 14-16 in the fifth set.

Now those two tennis championships are finally putting a stop to extremely long matches.

The Australian Open begins Monday in Melbourne. The competition now uses a first-to-10, win by two points tiebreaker, if both players have won six games in the last set of the match. In these competitions, men play up to five sets and women play as many as three.

At Wimbledon later this summer, the players may have to play a little longer. The new rules call for a first-to-seven, win by two points tiebreaker, if players are tied at 12 games in the last set.

Many players support the new rules.

Roddick said, “…I’ll miss the long matches, but I think it’s a positive change.” The 2003 United States Open champion added that he thought fans would like to see a result from the match after a few hours.

For American John Isner, that would be a welcome change too. In 2010, Isner beat Frenchman Nicolas Mahut 70-68 in the fifth set at Wimbledon. The set itself lasted more than eight hours. It was the longest tennis match in history: 11 hours and five minutes.

Isner said this about the rule change at Wimbledon: “If they could name it, they probably would name it after me.”

The U.S. Open was the first of the four Grand Slam¹ championships to end long matches. In the 1970s, the U.S. Open started the first-to-seven, win-by-two tiebreaker to end a 6-6 tie in the final set.

The French Open, however, will continue to have players compete until someone wins by two games. That means all four championships now use different rules to end a match.

Chris Kermode is head of the Association² of Tennis Professionals (ATP). He said, “Ultimately, it’s a balancing act between elevating³ the uniqueness of each event, versus⁴ compromising⁵ on the uniformity of rules and potential clarity⁶ for fans.”

Women’s Tennis Association chief Steve Simon would like to have the same rules across all the major championships. But he added, “I don’t think that matches that go extraordinarily⁷ long are healthy for the sport.”

Denis Shapovalov is competing in this year’s Australian Open. He said, “For the fans, they’ve already watched five hours of tennis, so they don’t want to sit through another, potentially, hour or two hours. They want to see an ending. And they want it to be exciting.”

I’m Mario Ritter, Jr.

Words in This Story

match –n. a contest between two or more players or teams

score –n. the number of points, goals, runs that each player or team has in a contest

tiebreaker –n. something that decides the winner of a game

positive –adj. good, useful

uniqueness –n. the quality of being special, unusual or one-of-a-kind

versus –prep. Used to indicate two different things that are being compared or that are competing against each other

uniformity –n. the quality or state of being the same

potentially –adv. having the possibility of become real

1 slam   

v.猛力地推、放或扔；砰地关上

参考例句：

• They were surprised by the slam of a car door.关汽车门时发出的声音使他们很吃惊。
• Why should you slam the window?你干吗要使劲关窗户呢？

2 association   

n.联盟，协会，社团；交往，联合；联想

参考例句：

• Our long association with your company has brought great benefits.我方和贵公司的长期合作带来了巨大的利益。
• I broke away from the association ten years ago.我10年前就脱离了那个团体。

3 elevating   

起提升作用的, 令人振奋的 升降机构

参考例句：

• Reading this essay was an elevating experience. 阅读这篇短文很有启发。
• Gastric distention may also reduce lung volume by elevating the diaphragm. 胃胀使膈升高也会减少肺的容积。

4 versus   

prep.以…为对手，对；与…相比之下

参考例句：

• The big match tonight is England versus Spain.今晚的大赛是英格兰对西班牙。
• The most exciting game was Harvard versus Yale.最富紧张刺激的球赛是哈佛队对耶鲁队。

5 compromising   

adj.妥协的；让步的vt.“compromise”的现在分词

参考例句：

• They were discovered together in a compromising situation . 他们被人发现在一起，场面有伤风化。
• He made the fatal mistake of compromising early. 他犯了过早妥协的致命错误。 来自辞典例句

6 clarity   

n.清澈，透明，明晰

参考例句：

• His writing has great clarity of style.他的写作风格清晰易懂。
• Mozart's music is characterized by its naivety and clarity.莫扎特的音乐特色是纯朴兴清澈。

7 extraordinarily   

adv.格外地；极端地

参考例句：

• She is an extraordinarily beautiful girl.她是个美丽非凡的姑娘。
• The sea was extraordinarily calm that morning.那天清晨，大海出奇地宁静。