Should the ATP Restore Masters Finals to Best of Five Sets?

By
at Internationaled.org

Published: April 25, 2010

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I am usually a big fan of the Masters tournaments.  I’ve attended Paris Bercy twice over the last few years and have always enjoyed watching Indian Wells and Miami on TV, along with Rome, Canada, and Cincinnati. 

However, since 2008, I’ve found that I’ve lost interest in the Masters tournaments and I’ve been wondering why that’s the case. 

I’ve come to the conclusion that they have lost some prestige due to the current format, and the Slams have more weight than ever before (which will please the ITF of course!).

In 1990 the ATP had a revamp of the calendar and brought in the Super Nine series culminating with the end of year ATP Championships, which took place in Germany from 1990 to 1999. 

The Super Nine events incorporated some of the biggest tournaments in the world outside of the Grand Slams, including Italian Open, German Open, Canadian Open, Monte Carlo and Cincinnati. 

Miami, Indian Wells, Stuttgart Indoors and Paris Indoors rounded out the nine tournaments.  The ATP Championships first took place in Frankfurt from 1990 to 1995 and Hanover from 1996 to 1999.

In 2000, the ATP had another revamp and renamed the Super Nines to the Masters series, awarding 500 points for a win.  Under the old system the winner got 350 points. 

The contract to show the matches on pay television went to Swiss company ISL, who seemed to overstretch themselves and went bust in 2001. 

Some of the traditional names of the tournaments were also changed, therefore the Canadian Open became the Rogers Cup, Italian Open became Rome Masters and German Open became Hamburg Masters.

To me, the name changes seem to take some of the prestige away from these events.

In 2009, the ATP had yet another revamp with some historical events like Hamburg and Monte Carlo downgraded and new events like Shangha...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Tennis

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