Tennis Random, Random (On Court)

[ponchi101]

Some sports could be, and those would be fun. Golf, for example, could be played in a mixed format, with the women simply teeing off a bit closer to the hole. That would be fun.
I like the Olympic formats of mixed relays; those are fun too. And you could play basketball in a mixed format, although I don't know if the women could handle the contact.
But the point that some people try to drive is what is boring. That women can compete in equal terms; that is when the thing gets boring, because it becomes like a crusade for those people. And the conversation is a bore.

[ti-amie]

[ti-amie]

Where will the tournaments on the ATP and WTA Tour calendar be held in 2026? And how are they distributed by location, level and surface?

With the new season right around the corner (and far too much time on my hands), I have done some data-extracting and number-crunching for all 63 ATP and 57 WTA events. Here are a few nuggets of trivia:

Events

There are 15 shared events, 16 if you count Toronto/Montréal, or 17 including United Cup.

7 cities host non-concurrent ATP and WTA events.

The busiest month is February (8 WTA, 10 ATP events).

Winston-Salem and Washington, D.C. have unusually large draws for ATP 250 and 500 events, with 48 singles players (instead of the typical 28 and 32).

Locations

Europe hosts 32 (50.8%) ATP tournaments, official exhibitions/team events included.

WTA events are more evenly split: 19 (33.9%) are in Europe and 18 (32.1%) in Asia-Pacific.

The United States hosts the most events (9 ATP, 8 WTA).

The Southern Hemisphere hosts 8 ATP events and 7 WTA events, in line with its global population share.

Surfaces

ATP Tour has more than twice as many indoor hard events as the WTA Tour (14 vs 6).

Europe hosts about 75% of clay events (14/19 ATP, 9/12 WTA).

Both tours have 7 grass events, but none are 1000s.

Did anything surprise you? Where would you like to see a tournament added/upgraded next?

[ashkor87]

Certainly at least 1 1000 level on grass!

[ponchi101]

So few tournaments in L. America and Africa. Africa especially needs to have a few more. It is not as if S. Africa has not produced some good players.
Agree. 1 1000 Grass tournament would be good. But Wimbledon will never like that.

[ashkor87]

https://www.essentiallysports.com/tenni ... d0c788974c
The complaints about balls resurface...simple solution would be to change balls more often.

[ponchi101]

Interesting data for our never-ending talk about court speed. What if it really has been the balls?
And he mentions Dunlops, which, the way I remember them, were always super fast rocks.

[ti-amie]

Words fail me...

[Oploskoffie]

Words fail me...

Tennis Kenya said a controversial wildcard granted to Hajar Abdelkader should not have happened after the young Egyptian’s performance at a professional tournament in Nairobi went viral.

So if the performance hadn't gone viral...? Seriously though... How???

[ti-amie]

[ponchi101]

Precision tennis.

[Owendonovan]

Words fail me...

This kinda pissed me off. Low raked players are trying to make a living off something they've put years into training, sacrificing, and paying for and this non player actually gets paid for THAT performance?

[dryrunguy]

What tournament was this? When I first heard about it, they mentioned the level, which I had never heard of before so I assumed it must be bottom-level futures or something like that. And the woman who "beat" her is ranked something like 1,036 (I forget the exact number, but it was 1,0XX something). At that level, don't they often have trouble getting tournaments to fill? Especially a tournament in Kenya?

[ti-amie]

[ti-amie]