Anyone for Tennis? Innovation in the most traditional of sports.

As the 2019 tennis calendar draws to a close with the win of #nextgen superstar Stefanos Tsitsipas in the final of the annual ATP tour finals last Sunday (well, sort of – the all new David Cup format now underway obviously.. but apparently too late in the night for many of us to watch!), it is a good time to reflect on where the sport is and what we can draw from it as business leaders.

Usual disclaimer - those of you that know me know that I am a massive tennis fan, and still play (badly) a regular basis, however I think Tennis’ attempt to stay innovative and relevant in a hugely competitive and rapidly changing marketplace is a very interesting parallel to the challenges facing many industries around the world.

So where is tennis right now?

For most UK watchers, it is, of course, still all about Wimbledon. The tournament this summer saw an average of six million people tuning in to watch the Wimbledon men’s final between Djokovic and Federer, which was not far behind the 7.9 million-strong audience for England’s historic cricket world cup final – this was coupled with 28.3 million programme requests for Wimbledon 2019 online. Overall attendance at Wimbledon was 500,397, the second-highest in Wimbledon history.

(Interestingly, for those fact-fans amongst you, the highest TV sport audience of 2019 so far has been England's semi-final defeat by the USA in the Women's World Cup in July, with peak viewing figures of 11.7 million).

It is also has a global audience that is clearly still very much interested in it as well. In the USA, 2019 was ESPN’s most-watched Wimbledon Gentlemen’s Singles Final since 2012 and their third highest tennis audience ever – up 114% on 2018. Fox Sports Australia enjoyed its best Wimbledon ever, with an audience increase of 147% YOY. Though many sources reported empty seats during the French Open.  that too had substantial viewership (*although the lack of patrons might be more about it having the amazing catering options onsite, and only having one bar!). Tennis’ audience make-up is also really interesting; Women make up nearly half the international audience, making tennis unique across all world sports in having almost as many female as male fans.

Too little room at the top?

In the last decade the women’s game can be argued to have had much more to offer in terms of genuine competition, breakthrough performances and unpredictability. While #greatestofalltime. Serena Williams has dominated for some time, the likes of Angelique Kerber, Naomi Osaka, Simona Halep and Garbiñe Muguruza have also become multiple grand slam winners, and 2019 has also seen the breakthrough of major talents Bianca Andreescu (Canada) and Ashleigh Barty (Australia) winning their first grand-slams.

Despite being a golden era for tennis, it has seen a startlingly small number of top mens players dominate in recent years. Three (four if we count living national legend Sir Andy!) have dominated the men’s game for nearly two decades now: Roger Federer, Rafa Nadal and Novak Djokovic. Federer won his first Wimbledon in 2003. Just six men — the Big Four along with Stan Wawrinka and Marin Cilic - have won major titles since the 2010 Australian Open. Sports correspondent Charlie Eccleshare talks about a ‘lost generation’ of male players who have been unable to compete against the ‘big three’ - at 2019’s Wimbledon quarter finals the five main ‘up-and-coming’ male contenders were themselves aged between 28 and 31. 

While an exciting tussle for domination and 20 Grand Slams for some viewers, tennis is fairly unique in being a global sport that recognises it does need to adapt to changing tastes - what can we learn from this?

Staying competitive - rule changes to the most traditional of games

Though very long matches are a frequent feature of the sport, the reverse is often true also. Tennis matches are unpredictable, with games lasting anywhere from a few minutes to several hours. As such, reformers are trying to make the sport more accessible and less frustrating for both fans and players; including measures to avoid tests of endurance such as the 2010 Isner/Mahut Wimbledon match (that went on for 11 hours and five minutes). New rules were introduced by the All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) in 2019, meaning that matches that reach 12-12 in the final set at Wimbledon will now go to a tie-break in an effort to put a stop to these never-ending matches. AELTC chairman Philip Brook said, “We feel that [this] strikes an equitable balance between allowing players ample opportunity to complete the match to advantage, while also providing certainty that the match will reach a conclusion in an acceptable timeframe.” 

Other changes to the game in 2018 made by the ITF unveiled a handful of Grand Slam modifications that have come into effect in 2018 and 2019: an increased time limit between points; an adjustment to tournament-withdrawal policies, in the hopes of encouraging withdrawal for injured players and limiting the number of retirements during matches; a strict enforcement of the five-minute pre-match warm up. These have all been implemented in an attempt to shorten schedules. Former (and my childhood favourite if you are interested!) star player Goran Ivanisevic has commented favourably on the changes, saying that they will make for “faster, better, more interesting tennis.” 

#nextgen innovation

Brining through the next generation of talent in business is always challenging. Jamie Murray, himself a number one ranked doubles player, has commented on the lack of new blood coming up through the mens ranks, saying, “Andy won’t play for ever… then what’s behind him? There isn’t much and you’ll lose more interest in the game if you don’t have a star at the top. You need someone competing with Federer, Nadal and Djokovic." As well as the usual suspects (minus Andy – next year!) this years ATP Tour Finals shows this may be changing and featured a number of young guns including Daniil Medvdev and past winner Stefanos Tsitsipas. Their pathway has come from the introduction of the best 8 players under 21 now competing in the Next Gen ATP Finals in Milan - this tournament has, over the last couple of years, become a fascinating example of an entity trying to transform itself and give airtime to up and coming talent. This years third edition the Next Gen ATP Finals also tears up many of the sports traditional rules and introduced some really interesting and relevant innovations – the kind of technology adoption (no one talk about VAR) that leaves others in the shade: 

• Wearable Technology In-Competition: For the first time on the ATP Tour, players were permitted to use wearable technology in competition this year. The data collected allowed players and their coaches to quantify the demands of the competition in terms of effort being expended and make key performance decisions - all supported with objective data for the first time.
• Shorter Format: in the #nextgen finals, players go to the first to four game sets (with a tie-Break at 3-all), - not the normal six. While it is still best-of-five sets, three is no advantage scoring or extended deuce points meaning its sudden death at 40-40, all designed to increase number of pivotal moments in a match, and it really does deliver on that!
• Shorter Warm-Up - Matches begin precisely four minutes from the second player walk-on (not the start of the warm up / when Rafa has finished arranging his drinks bottles) - helping build the excitement.
• Shot Clock - A basketball style shot clock is also used in between points to ensure strict regulation of the 25-second rule, as well as during set breaks and medical time-outs (which are also limited to one per player per match (to avoid too much in the way of ‘tactical’ delays that have led to some criticism).
• Player Coaching - Players and coaches can communicate one-to-one at certain points in the match such as changeover – providing an amazing stream of content and entertainment value for broadcaster (although coaches will not be allowed on-court as they are in the amazing new Laver Cup format).
• Towel Rack - in a nice move, players are instructed to use a towel rack at the back of the court to remove the onus on ball kids to handle towels (ALL OF THE TIME!)
• 'Free Movement' Crowd Policy – Taking something out of baseball’s book, a ‘free movement’ policy is also applied to much of the crowd enabling fans to move freely in and out of the stadium during matches in a more relaxed fan-friendly atmosphere – not sure what they’d make of it on Centre Court!
• Video Review - VAR style video review is available to further analyse judgement calls from the chair umpire, including the following normal tennis incidents - double bounces; foul shots, the ball skimming a racquet or clothing; of course the players are able to challenge any such calls as well!

Of this attempt to appeal to a new audience, up-and-coming Canadian (and my favourite new player)! Denis Shapovalov sums up the intent: “For the fans, they’ve already watched five hours of tennis, so they don’t want to sit through another, potentially, hour or two hours. They want to see an ending. And they want it to be exciting.” WTA CEO Steve Simon agrees, saying, “The attention spans of the audience today is shrinking. Everybody wants it in very short nuggets and to see somebody sit for two to three hours and watch anything anymore is getting harder and harder.”

The #nextgen tournament was won by Italian Jannik Sinner this year, defeating Australian Alex de Minaur. Sinner’s rapid progression took him from outside the world Top 500 at the start of the year to wining makes Sinner’s story is compelling – at the winning press conference, the press cameras clicked and whirred as the 18-year-old answered questions in English and Italian, signed autographs and recorded and live streamed video messages for fans on social media.

Innovation continues elsewhere - in the last couple of year,s the new Laver Cup competition has also arisen seeing six top European players up against six of their counterparts from the rest of the world. The format is fast paced - 12 matches played over three days for points, with the first team to claim 13 points win the tournament. Each player takes the court once or twice for singles, with at least four of the six taking part in doubles. All matches are played as best-of-three, with a 10-point tiebreaker if play goes to a third set. Equally a new format for the Davis Cup as a two-week season ending tournament are underway as I write. It will be interesting to see what the Women's game comes out with also - with so much exciting talent, it would be great to see it come out with its own innovative formats.

Summary

From my perspective, I’ve been really, really surprised at the relative lack of interest in the #nextgen finals and their rule changes. Having seen it with my own eyes it was significantly more interesting than many, many conventional matches that I’ve sat through – it was lights out tennis for the whole of the match and a key to a brighter future for tennis - but innovation and change can be scary, and is not necessarily accepted with open hands - something businesses know well. The #nextgen finals have been barely covered on major sporting platforms like BBC.com (although, perhaps something to do with Amazon’s stranglehold on the rights).

So what can businesses’ learn from all of this? My suggestions would be:

1.    Succession planning is key - make sure you are nurturing the next generation of talent in your company (and not just relying on the hero’s you might have already!).

2. Don’t be afraid to change your business and offer new products and services according to your customers changing needs – as tennis has recognised it needs to adapt its offerings to changing tastes.

3.    When you are innovating, its okay to do it iteratively – its okay to test and learn and try new things - and accept that not all of them will work. Remember, this is a good thing! This is how you learn and refine your offering!

4. Be bold – I really feel the ambition of the #nextgen rule changes is incredibly inspiring for business – in many cases, they are literally tearing up 'rulebooks' and challenging many preconceptions and traditions – which I love!

Good luck in applying these lessons yourself and let me know how it goes! You can also find me on social media @DrGeraintEvans

Thanks

G