ATP Tour Finals rules fiasco was an "embarrassing episode for tennis", says Becker
London | November 30, 2009 10:09:52 AM IST
 

Former world no. 1 tennis player Boris Becker has described the confusion over the round-robin rules during the Barclays ATP Tour Finals as "an embarrassing episode for tennis."

Becker also questioned the professionalism of the Association of Tennis Professionals operations.

"It has been an embarrassing episode for tennis. The players were professional out on the court, but I'm not sure you could say the same thing about what happened off the court - what were the ATP doing?" The Telegraph quoted Becker, as saying.

The ATP was so unsure about how to interpret its own round-robin rules that Juan Martmn del Potro said he did not receive confirmation that he had qualified for the semi-finals until 25 minutes after he had beaten Roger Federer.

And, Andy Murray was so bewildered about whether he was in or out that he posted a message on Twitter, the micro-blogging website, asking: "Does anyone know what's going on?"

Federer and Del Potro both finished level on two victories and one defeat each, and they also could not be split over sets as the trio had each won five sets and dropped four, so it went down to the percentage of games won over their matches. On that basis, Federer finished first in Group A, and Del Potro was just ahead of Murray.

"I don't understand why the ATP weren't able to immediately tell the players who had qualified and who hadn't. What was going on with the ATP, what were they doing? They seemed to have worked everything out very quickly in the television studio," said Becker.

Becker said that Murray should not have felt the need during the third set of his match to have consulted an official about the rules, or, after Federer's game, to have posted a 'tweet' for help.

"Someone at the ATP should have explained to Murray and his team how it all works. The ATP should have explained everything beforehand - there should not have been any confusion," he said.

However, Brad Drewett, the tournament director, said that he did not consider the episode to have been "an embarrassment". "We wanted to double-check everything and get it right. We followed the right procedures." (ANI)

 

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