Tennis Australia’s underwhelming new, woke crew match has come below fireplace from Rafa Nadal for needlessly producing too many meaningless matches.
It just isn’t usually that Nadal bites the hand that feeds him so when the Spanish legend does converse up, he’s normally proper on the cash.
And on this case, the Spaniard is spot on in calling out the baffling format getting used for the inaugural United Cup – which has already been labelled a $22 million flop after changing time honoured occasions that Australian followers had embraced for generations, together with the NSW Open, that was first held in 1885.
While the concept of taking part in an expanded blended gender crew occasion has acquired some reward, the ill-conceived resolution by tennis officers to separate the 18 nationwide groups into six teams of three has gone down like a lead balloon.
With solely the group
winner advancing, this has left some groups taking part in total ties with nothing at stake.
In the case of Spain and Australia, they have been put within the insane scenario of contesting 5 matches over two days – all for zilch – as a result of neither crew might advance within the match after shedding their opening ties to Britain.
That’s left some tennis superstars – together with the Australian Open’s defending champion Nadal – reconsidering their preparations for the primary grand slam of 2023 in Melbourne due to the scheduling blunder.
“I’m in all probability gonna go away Wednesday. I don‘t know,” Nadal said. “Visit a little bit the city here Wednesday morning and then leaving in the afternoon. Maybe.”
Nadal is not the first foreign superstar to be left to fend for himself after local tennis officials stuffed things up and he’s not the one one unimpressed by the United Cup.
Plenty of huge title gamers have skipped the match altogether – together with nine-time Australian Open winner Novak Djokovic and present world No.1 Carlos Alcaraz.
With the competitors additionally being held in three completely different cities – Sydney, Brisbane and Perth – however just one attending to crown the champion, it’s little surprise followers and gamers really feel like they’ve been bought a lemon.
“I‘m not sure yet about the schedule,” Nadal stated. “But putting things in perspective, this competition I find a negative point.
“Competition is great. Idea is great. It‘s not great that today we are playing for nothing. I really believe — it’s the first year of this competition, so that’s kind of things that need to fix, to improve, and to make it more interesting for everyone.”
Tennis Australia officers hate it every time high gamers name them out so normally simply ignore their complaints or sweep them below the carpet with company gibberish however they need to be listening intently to Nadal.
Not solely is he one of the crucial revered figures in tennis historical past however the Spanish veteran even gave officers a easy, quick-fix resolution to eradicate all of the embarrassing variety of lifeless rubbers making a mockery of the occasion.
The solely purpose Spain and Australia ended up taking part in two days of meaningless matches was as a result of the Aussies misplaced to the Brits on days one and two, then the Spanish misplaced to Britain on days three and 4.
But Nadal stated that might simply have been prevented if organisers had simply used a bit little bit of commonsense and foresight by rescheduling Spain to play Australia on days three and 4, thus guaranteeing the group winner wouldn’t be determined till the ultimate tie.
“I actually consider that in a bunch of three, the loser of the primary tie must play with the crew that didn‘t play yet, because that makes the competition much more interesting,” Nadal said.
“I don‘t think it is good for the competition that today we are playing against Australia, both of us being out of the tournament.
“That will not happen if the country who didn‘t play at the beginning played with the loser of the first day, all the matches gonna make sense.”
Originally published as United Cup 2023: Rafael Nadal’s slams United Cup for meaningless competitors
