“The Division I Men’s and Women’s Tennis Committee has decided to rescind the tiebreaker procedure it had recommended last week for singles and six-all set doubles competition,” the NCAA announced. The recommendations caused a firestorm in the collegiate tennis communities with players, ex-players, and coaches setting up online protests.
The committee had considered using a “super tiebreaker” for singles matches in lieu of a third set, and playing one six-game set in doubles, with a tiebreaker at 6-all, instead of playing one eight-game pro set.
However, the committee is proceeding with all its other proposals that focus on reducing the amount of time it takes to complete matches, including removing warm-ups before singles and doubles; reducing the time between singles and doubles to five minutes (currently 10); and shortening each changeover from 90 seconds to 60.
The proposals still must be approved by the Division I Championships/Sports Management Cabinet, which is scheduled to meet Sept. 10-12.
“We heard the concerns and we look forward in the future to working with the ITA and USTA to try to come up with formats that would make college tennis better and more fan friendly,” committee chair Cathy Beene told the NCAA web site. “We heard that from a lot of coaches. That is one of the reasons we looked at these proposals.”