I held off writing my most recent post until today (as opposed to last night) – and boy, I am glad that I did.

I’m sure you’ve been able to detect my disapproval of the ATP’s round robin experiment by now – extensive commentary on my part and links to like-minded tennis pundits should have made it abundantly clear. But as much as I hated the idea of the format, I never suspected that the doomsday scenario would have occurred so early in the season. After seeing what transpired in Las Vegas, the ATP should not only rid the schedule of the format for 2007, but they should scrap the remainder of round robin tournaments this year.

Here’s what happened: James Blake went into his round-robin match with Juan Martin Del Potro needing to win in straight sets, and, without losing more than five total games. When the telecast of the match started, Tennis Channel commentator Jimmy Arias brought up a fine point that I hadn’t even considered about the format – that while it is obvious that James Blake needed to come out gunning on all cylinders, Del Potro just had to come out and win six games. Not win the match – just win six games. So, even though fans might think that the fervour from Blake will make the match more exciting, what happens if Del Potro wins his six games, and the match is still going on?
What’s left to play for? And, what’s to say that the players, knowing full well about the permutations, keep up their level of play? In all, it seems like a recipe for disaster. Still, up to this point, the round robin format hadn’t completely embarrassed itself on the world stage.

Back to the match, which was a pretty appealing one on paper. Blake did indeed come out swinging, winning the first set 6-1. Going into the second, he needed to win 6-4 or better, and he was through to the second round instead of Evgeny Korolev, who soundly defeated Blake earlier in the week. (It’s rather odd that Blake even has the chance to advance, despite the whipping he got from Korolev.)

The second set featured much of the same – Del Potro was unable to hold serve even once in the match, and Blake was soon up 3-1. But earlier in the set, when Del Potro sat down on a changeover, he called the trainer. My first thought was about the round robin system, and how it favours the percentage of sets and games won as tiebreakers. What if the Argentine were to retire? Does that impact the scenarios in some other way? Only a minute later, Arias picked up on the same possibility, and confirmed that if del Potro was to retire, Blake could not advance to the next round, even if he conceded less than six games at that point.

After a lengthy visit from the trainer, del Potro continued for a couple games, but at 3-1, he hung in the towel. Blake, likely not knowing his fate, shook the hand of his opponent, and spoke to the crowd in the on-court interview. But when the interview concluded, a shadow approached him (almost certainly someone from the ATP), to inform him of his terrible misfortune.Korolev would advance.