German Tennistraining Junior Magazine Article “Thirty30 Tennis - the new (shorter) scoring format"

A two page article “Thirty30 Tennis – the new scoring format” was published in the 28 page German magazine “Tennistraining Junior, the specialist magazine for innovative child and youth training in schools and clubs.” (03 / 2020, ISSN 2195-2353, June 2020)

With "Tennistraining Junior" you have in your hands for the first time a magazine for trainers, sports instructors, youth attendants, school sports assistants, sports assistants, which was specially designed for the target group that deals with the young people at the grassroots level.

These people have a central key position when it comes to the correct planning of game and training hours, implementation of competitions and tournaments, correct organizational forms for large groups in sports halls and on tennis courts, but also age-appropriate coaching behavior.

A child-oriented, playful training is important to us and we hope that the magazine "Tennistraining Junior" will help the people working at the grass roots to convey this to our juniors.

Front Cover Page:

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Page 22:

Page 23:

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Page 27:

An English translation of pages 23 & 24 and page 22 is below.

Reference Pages 23 & 24.

The new scoring format ...Thirty30 Tennis

Mark Milne, the creator of the scoring format “Thirty30”, emphasized in our interview that many sports will have to develop their content in the future. In his opinion, “Thirty30” can open the sport of tennis to new demographic target groups.

Tennistraining Junior: Why does tennis have to be reinterpreted with its global reach?

Mark Milne: Certain rules are out of date.

In order to be attractive for young people in the future, tennis has to adapt to new circumstances.

Sports consumption behaviour is changing among those interested in sports, and traditional sports formats are also fighting for spectators and club members.

“Short formats” have become established in many sports in recent years.

From “3 against 3” basketball and beach volleyball to “Tie Break Tens”, these short sports, in addition to their growing fan base, attract a lot of media attention.

These short formats are a platform to inspire the modern sports fan: attractive, lots of action, quickly ending without long breaks.

Tennis is in a phase of change in which new, faster formats are emerging as an alternative to the traditional modes of staging.

In “Tie Break Tens”, eight players play match-tie breaks using a knockout format and determine a winner after two hours of play.

At the “ATP NextGen Finals” matches are played “best-of-five” short sets.

The short sets are played up to four games and when a score of three games all is reached a tie-break is played.

In addition, the “No Ad” and “No Let” rules are used.

The ITF have announced that the tennis competitions at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics will be held in a shortened format.

The men's final is played over best-of-three sets and in all doubles competitions the third set is played as a match tie break.

Tennis Training Junior: What is your long-term goal and where do you want to take “Thirty30 Tennis”?

Mark Milne: During the [2018] Cincinnati Open Novak Djokovic said “The new generation of tennis fans does not have the attention span that previous tennis fans had. Among other things, you want that events run faster. In order to win tennis for a younger audience, we have to make the tennis matches more dynamic and shorter."

The future of tennis requires alternative, shorter, more dynamic tournament formats.

Jim Baugh, [former] President of the US Tennis Industry Association said:

“Every traditional sport needs to change and find new ways to make the game more attractive to today's players or potential players. Thirty30 looks like a system which will appeal to players and offers shorter and more intense matches.”

Alternative forms of tennis are definitely in demand.

"Thirty 30 Tennis" is a shortened competition format, in which every point really counts.

It offers both amateur and professional tennis players an alternative to the traditional tennis scoring method.

This format ensures shorter and more exciting matches in which points are scored much faster and a set is completed within of 20 minutes on average.

It enables the players to play significantly more matches against different opponents and is also suitable for doubles and mixed tournaments at club level.

The fundamentals of tennis remain the same and matches are of a higher intensity, more dynamic, ultra-competitive and extremely exciting.

Thirty30 Tennis matches are played in the traditional way of tennis with the following exceptions:

- all games start from 30-30.

- if a game score of 6-6 is reached during a set, a 9-point tie-break is played.

The player(s) that score five points first wins the set. A ‘Sudden-death’ point is played at 4-4.

The order of serve (Player ‘A’ / Player ‘B’) is: A B B A - change ends - A B B A A (a maximum of nine points are played).

- during a set, players serve alternately and change ends initially after completing two games then after every four games. The order of serve is:

A B - change ends - A B A B - change ends - A B A B – change ends - A B (+ 9-point tie-break).

- if a game score of 6-6 is reached in the final set, no tie-break is played - the final set must be won by leading by 2 clear games.

2-hour Thirty30 tennis event - round-robin [2 courts / 5 players]

All matches are played according to the Thirty30 Rules and are one set up to six games (lead by two).

If the game score reaches 6-6, a tie-break up to 5 points is played and when the score is 4-4, a ‘sudden-death’ point is played.

% Calculation = ( games won / total number of games played ) x 100

Versatile tournament formats

All types of tournament formats can be used with the Thirty30 scoring format. Practice has shown that knockout formats should not be used, especially for children and adolescents, within the individual [ITF] ‘play + stay’ levels. Group or ranking list tournaments are ideal for this. The big advantage is that the tournaments are more manageable and the participating players can play much more matches.

Reference Page 23.

Is Tennis Too Boring?

In recent years, the sport of tennis has been enriched in the form of regular changes with elements that conform to the media. In addition, changes to the game system (e.g. “Fast4”) are being debated eagerly.

Many tennis experts agree: weather dependency and the unpredictability of tennis sport are risk factors for many TV stations and viewers. The lack of predictability over time has been a matter of controversy for years.

The retired (German tennis player) Alexander Waske asks himself the question: “Will you watch a best-of-five match?”

With the introduction of the tie-break in 1979, the matches were shortened for the first time.

A few years ago, the “match-tie-break” was introduced for the doubles tournaments of the ATP tour and in the tennis Bundesliga. The purpose of this regulation is to replace the third set with a tie break of up to ten points. This creates much more excitement among the audience and more often forces the “dramatic decision point”.

If you follow the opinion of Alexander Waske, all Grand Slam tournaments for tennis fans “are only about the five sets. It's about the explosiveness that the match lasts so long and because it really pays from then on. ”

The game system “Fast4” has been under discussion for some time and has already been tested for practical suitability in smaller tournaments. The name says it all:

The tennis game is to be shortened significantly through targeted rule changes and thus made more predictable.

Many tennis experts advocate that the game should not be changed too much because tradition, including epic matches, is what makes tennis so special.

For Alexander Waske, the change in the scoring would also be too much of an interference with the system, since physically strong players could no longer play off their strength.

Double specialist Christopher Kas, on the other hand, argues that the scoring method is irrelevant. The tournament director of the “Kitzbuhl Open” Alex Antonitsch adds “The sport has to meet changing media needs. Sport has to be real entertainment. A rough party with no excesses.”

In addition, you have to go new ways to convey emotions, bring the viewer closer to the player and ensure “that there are viewers”, because “the nicest thing is if we can show on TV: there is something going on.”