T30 Blog - Reply to 'An Invitation to Trial Thirty30 Tennis' - An Alternative Shorter Scoring Format
Updated: Nov 26, 2019
Thirty30 received a very interesting reply via LinkedIn from Daniel Libeskind Rosenbaum, Development Department Coordinator, Paulista Tennis Federation, Sorocaba, São Paulo, Brazil, to the ‘An Invitation to Trial Thirty30 Tennis’ request.
Daniel is “Responsible for creating an integrative and interactive system involving clubs and academies based on installing standard management models, sharing teaching methods and running players' participation and coaches' education programs.”
The reply was:
“The game of tennis is a long game.
Learning to play and to become an experienced player requires to play a lot and, significantly, to play a reasonable number of long matches.
The scoring rules allow making great comebacks possible during the games, sets and matches.
There is so much pressure when the score comes to the crucial game-points, break-points, set-points, match-points and championship points.
Players learn that a match is never won and never lost until the last point is finished.
Players also learn that some points are more important than others, some are possible to lose but some are necessary to win, and organize strategically how to play according to it.
The method of scoring is an interesting characteristic of the game that makes tennis unique.
Sometimes adaptations are necessary and/or convenient.
If the purpose is to accelerate and shorten the game, starting the games at thirty-all (i.e. Thirty30 tennis) is an excellent idea.
The game still maintains its reality, however the points acquire a different significance - all become important.
When the matches are close, players will be required to play with more responsibility, more determination and more concentration practically every single point.
As any adaptation of the rules should properly mean to bring positive modifications in the way of playing, "Thirty30" could be adopted by coaches, recreational players and tournament organizations as a great alternative because it promotes useful effects regarding the shorter duration of the matches and educational changes concerning to the players' mindset while still preserving the spirit of the game.
