Thursday Rant: No Ad Scoring

Yes, that's right, the Thursday segment will be a place for me to do what all bloggers do: rant. Then you get to write your comments about whether you agree, or disagree, or don't care. But every Thursday you can hear my deep passion for the game of tennis resounding in some fashion at this location.



TR #1: No Ad Scoring
Speed, efficiency, practicality, "getting things done." I hate those phrases. In a society that worships at the altar of speed and immediacy, I have always held onto the things that fight against that tide. My favorite sports show that, both soccer and tennis have an endurance, a patience, a buildup to them. Tennis has always been a sport that celebrates the patient and ongoing, the "battle" as assistant coach Andrew Lanctot would say.

If you search the records of our website, you'll see one of the stats that I celebrate is the longest recorded match. It's actually a match that we didn't win but I'm proud of the participants none the less. If you read match reports you'll often find that my favorite matches are the ones that stretch on and on and in which we persevere and win.

The beauty of tennis is that the nature of the game is to provide epic memories. And I believe that is what tennis, and sport in general, is supposed to provide. Memories, and the grander the better. Just think about some of the best matches ever. Federer and Nadel's Wimbledon final this year in which the final set extended beyond the normal point of the tiebreak. Or think about what we talk about after matches, "We had one game that went to like 12 deuces before I finally won the last two points in a row." We remember these epic battles that go back and forth within every game.

But practicality and modern society is pressing in on that beautiful game now. Many are wanting the matches to get over faster to manage the travel and time that matches take. And the answer to this at many tournaments and leagues is no-ad scoring.

Now, no-ad scoring has it's place as a practice drill. It allows for superficial pressure to be placed on one point. But it should never be used in a real match. It fundamentally changes the talents needed to succeed in tennis. Instead of a player who can persevere and fight back, force the match to continue and rescue themselves from the point of defeat, no-ad scoring places an emphasis on the luck of one point and the player who is able to step up repeatedly in a situation that concentrates all the pressure.

What I feel like is that society loves something that is containable. It wants something that it can control. This match is going to take two hours, period. Or one hour, or whatever. It also wants the same type of athlete. They want it to all come down to one moment, and then worship the person who succeeds in that moment.

I love tennis because it stands against that. If it is deuce and you take a chance and don't succeed, well, you can fight your way back to deuce by winning the next point. The variability of watching a game take 20 minutes because of the multiple deuces or watching a game take 2 minutes because someone wins each point, I think that is part of the beauty of tennis. Replacing it because we want to speed matches up seems like a cop out to me.

Here's hoping we never see no-ad scoring in Indiana high school tennis, because high school tennis has another dimension to it. We're also teaching lessons about life through sport. And one of the valuable lessons that tennis teaches is that of endurance and perseverance, picking yourself up from defeat and pursuing victory. That happens within each game, within the set, and obviously within the match. And all of that is crucial. It makes the player focus on each part as a small and important piece of the whole, a lesson that is important to life.

Anyways, I guess I just get annoyed when I watch a professional doubles match and see them speeding things up with the no-ad scoring system. I also know I'm probably in the minority in disliking it. But that makes me need to speak all the louder.