The Evolution Of The Game

[ponchi101]

The best match at Wimbledon, on the men's side, was Carlos/Fabio in the first round. A fine 5 setter.

[ashkor87]

My call for substitution in case of injury to a finalist...prophetic, eh,?

[ashkor87]

The best match at Wimbledon, on the men's side, was Carlos/Fabio in the first round. A fine 5 setter.

Exception proves the rule! what about the other 63 matches?!

[ponchi101]

My call for substitution in case of injury to a finalist...prophetic, eh,?

Yes. But, how do you implement it? We are not saying that this is not a bummer. What would you have done yesterday? Call Atmane and tell him to play, starting at 0-5?
Sometimes you kick. Sometimes you get kicked.

[ashkor87]

That is for the tour to figure out...but this situation would not have arisen if Sinner had pulled out before the match began. If there had been a plan B of the kind i described, he might have stood down, to give the fans a match. Might not, of course ..if it were me running through tour, i would make the plan B known in advance and asked the losing semifinalists to stay ready, for a fee. Thfetour finals does pay the alternate for doing nothing, so not unprecedented.

[ponchi101]

Remember the year that Rafa beat Fritz in the Wimby quarters, and then had to W/O the semi? Even Fritz said that he would have not deserved to play the semi; he had lost.
A tough situation. And yesterday was pretty much an exception. The last MS1000 final that was not completed was (coincidence) the 2011 Cincy final, when Novak retired against Andy, trailing 6-4, 3-0. 14 years of nothing like this happening. You need a more frequent occurrence before you decide to start changing the rules.

[ti-amie]

[dryrunguy]

Lucky shots...