Mark Milne, creator of Thirty30 Tennis, has been getting thumbs up from many leading tennis figures around the world.
Thirty30 (T30) tennis is an abbreviated format of tennis where every point really counts and can be described as the tennis equivalent of cricket’s Twenty20 (T20).
As time passes, sports are forced to evolve to keep up. Certain rules and principles become outdated and in order to refrain from becoming obsolete, sports have to adjust.
There appears to be an appetite within tennis for shorter format matches and indeed in the newly published strategy ‘Tennis Opened Up’, the LTA is seeking innovative ways to deliver the sport to widen its appeal and to engage new audiences in tennis.
The very simple rules of Thirty30 are exactly the same as traditional tennis, except:
– EVERY game starts at ’30-30′ (announced “Thirty30” – the clue is in the name!)
– A ‘Short Set’ ‘best of 9-point tie-break’ is played at 6 games all.
– Players serve alternative games and only change ends after 2, 6 and 10 games.
A set of Thirty30 takes no longer than 20 minutes with a best of 3 sets match completed in no longer than 60 minutes and best of 5 sets in 90 minutes.
Mark stated: “Thirty30 has been trialed all over the world since late 2017 and feedback has been very encouraging, resulting in over 200 testimonials on the Thirty30 website – youngsters have especially been enjoying the faster moving and more exciting format”.
Jim Baugh, President, US Tennis Industry Association (2004-06) said; “Every traditional sport needs to change and look for new ways to make the game more appealing to today’s players or potential players. Thirty30 looks like a system which will appeal to players and offers shorter and more intense matches. Alternative forms of tennis are needed for sure and Mark’s system seems to be a winner”.
Rod Heckelman, General Manager & Tennis Director at Mt. Tam Racquet Club, San Rafael, California: “This is the future of tennis at many facilities for a number of reasons…first, it capitalizes on court usage, it gets more people interacting, it blends a very needed social atmosphere with still a competitive edge, and lastly, it works well for the younger folks who are not comfortable with time consuming events or formats. Look for this style of play to become more accepted and popular over the coming years”.
Jeff Tarango, Director of Tennis at The Jack Kramer Club, Greater Los Angeles Area: “So great. That is how I played almost all my sets as a kid!! I love the Thirty30 format for practice and 10 and Under tournaments. There are many applications. Juniors have a hard time concentrating for 2 and a half hours and lose tough-big matches as a consequence, so Thirty30 needs to be “a part of a balanced diet”.
During the Cincinnati Open last year, Novak Djokovic commented: “This new generation of tennis fans and millennials, they don’t have the great attention span. They want things to happen very quickly. So, for the players as well and to attract more people, more viewers of a younger audience, I think we have to keep tennis matches dynamic and shorter.”
Last week the ITF announced that the 2020 Tokyo Games tennis matches will be played over a shorter format – the men’s singles final is to be cut to the best of 3 sets and the third set match tie-break will be used in all of the doubles events.
An article “Thirty30 – Revolutionizing Tennis” was published on the Women’s Tennis Coaching Association (WTCA) Tennis Talk website and another article “Has tennis found its version of cricket’s Twenty20 format with Thirty30 tennis?” was published recently on the Tennis365 website.
“The future of tennis requires having alternative shorter more dynamic scoring formats to help encourage competition and drive participation. Thirty30 Tennis delivers this” says Mark.
For further information contact Mark Milne at contact@thirty30tennis.com