 Del Potro had an anxious wait after his win over Federer |
Tournament director Brad Drewett has pledged there will be no repeat of the chaotic scenes at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals at the O2 Arena. Juan Martin del Potro was left waiting on court for more than 15 minutes after beating Roger Federer not knowing if he had made it through to the semi-finals. "We're going to review our procedures and in the future we will aim to make a better job," Drewett said. "We agree it wasn't ideal. Can we shorten the procedures? Yes." Britain's Andy Murray was the player out of luck on Thursday, despite beating Fernando Verdasco in his final round-robin match in London. It eventually emerged that Del Potro had edged him out of the semi-finals by a margin of just one game.  | 606: DEBATE |
The Argentine, Murray and world number one Roger Federer had all finished with the same number of match and set wins and losses. Drewett admitted that it was a difficult situation for both the players and the crowd at the O2 Arena, and that it was an unprecedented situation. But he said: "The first thing is to get it right. "When you come down to 0.5%, human nature is that you want to check it a few more times, it was clearly very, very close. "It's the first time it's happened, ever, I think, certainly in the last 20 years. "There are certain procedures that need to be followed. "The supervisor has to sign off on it but he also needs to be on court," added Drewett. "Once the match finished he had to come back here to verify the calculation." There has been criticism the permutations are too complex, with the ATP appearing confused about the outcome of certain scenarios. But Drewett said: "I think the rules are pretty simple, at least for those whose job it is to read the rule book." He added that overall the tournament had been an "amazing success" but promised to addressed the concerns of spectators over late-finishing matches. "There's always a review process and we'll look at ways to make it bigger and better next year," he said. "That will include the schedule and the timing. If we can bring it forward, we will."
|
Bookmark with:
What are these?