Bad, no awful, few days for the USTA. First, in an indefensible move, they suspend the number one junior player in world, Taylor Townsend. Tom Perrotta does a fantastic job of explaining it here and has a great piece with Lindsay Davenport and Martina Navratilova here. Therefore, we won't discuss it any further in the Cheap Seats.
But we will expound on the USTA's second boneheaded move this week, well third if you count stretching the first round of the US Open over three days, but that is not pertinent to this discussion.
The men's final will again be played on Monday in 2012. This has happened way too often recently. This year it could have been avoided. Here we pause to give credit to the USTA for getting one thing rioght - suspending play during a severe weather alert. That, my friends, was a no-brainer.
However, before play was suspended, both men's semis should have been in the books. When you have a weather window, you get in as many matches as possible. Simultaneous semis on Ashe and Armstrong was the play here. You're probably not going to get in the women's final, but that's not a huge deal. Really, who among tennis fans would not like to see a men's and women's double header final on the last day of the tournament?
I realize there are ticket issues and TV issues at stake when you start monkeying with the schedule, but now there are even bigger issues because they weren't dealt with initially. I know of at least one market where the men's Monday final was not shown because the local affiliate, either by contract or a local decision.
There needs to be some changes made before the 2013 US Open.
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