Tie Break Tens Event (Melbourne 2018) - Thirty30 Report
Updated: Nov 26, 2019
Tennis again showed its recent appetite for fast-paced shorter-format events when the fourth in a series of Tie Break Tens events rolled into Melbourne on January 10 2018, where eight men competed in a one-night-only knockout competition for a winner-takes-all $250,000.
Each match consisted of one Match Tie Break to ten points and the eventual winner, after 2.5 hours, was world ranked #20 Tomas Berdych, who defeated world ranked #1 Rafael Nadal 10-5 in the 10 minute final.
Summary of matches
Q-Final (QF1) - Lleyton Hewitt (-) defeated Novak Djokovic (14) : 10-6 (9.5 minutes)
Q-Final (QF2) - Rafael Nadal (1) defeated Lucas Pouille (18) : 10-1 (6 minutes)
Q-Final (QF3) - Tomas Berdych (20) defeated Nick Krygios (17) : 10-8 (10 minutes)
Q-Final (QF4) - Milos Raonic (23) defeated Dominic Thiem (5) : 10-7 (11 minutes)
S-Final (SF1) - Rafael Nadal (1) defeated Lleyton Hewitt (-) : 13-11 (16.5 minutes)
S-Final (SF2) - Tomas Berdych (20) defeated Milos Raonic (23) : 11-9 (14 minutes)
Final - Tomas Berdych (20) defeated Rafael Nadal (1) : 10-5 (10 minutes)
Analysis of matches
The next in a series of Tie Break Tens events to be held during 2018 is scheduled to take place in Madison Square Garden, New York on March 5 where Serena and Venus Williams have agreed to compete.
Thirty30 Comment It is interesting to witness tennis continuing to experiment with fast-paced shorter match formats – there definitely appears to be an appetite for this.
The Margaret Court Arena in Melbourne was virtually full and the event was televised live all over the world.
The eight player knockout format of the event works very well, with the audience viewing eight different players and eight matches in 2.5 hours. (An additional fun doubles match between the 4 quarter-final losers was also played before the final).
However, the format of each match is not ideal.
A Match Tie Break to 10 points (i.e. a SuperTie Break) is a bit of a lottery and is over too quickly with no time for the players to settle in or for the audience to get involved.
When sport is at its fairest and best, the most skillful player on the day should win and unfortunately with the 10 minute shoot-out of the Match Tie Break to 10 points, this is not always the case, with the “big server” invariably having an advantage.
The alternative Thirty30 scoring method can be used for an 8 player one-night-only knockout competition.
Thirty30 FEELS, LOOKS and SOUNDS like traditional tennis, ensures that the best player on the day wins and a one set match takes around 20-25 minutes to complete.
An 8 player knockout Thirty30 competition using one court takes 3.5 hours to complete and using 2 courts takes under 2 hours.
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