You could do better, Tennis

 

Is it an flaw in formatting, or just complete domination?

Rafael Nadal and Serena Williams waltzed to victory during their respective matches at Roland Garros this weekend to claim the Men's and Women's French Open title (Nadal: 6-3, 6-2, 6-3, and Serena: 6-4, 6-4). The question has to be asked how neither champion lost a set...in the finals, of a GRAND SLAM event.

In the opening question, the answer for Serena is a no-brainer. She won with complete domination of the tennis court. She won her semifinal match only dropping one game to Sara Errani. Sharapova was definitely the second best player out there, and Serena proved why in the championship match

Nadal? Different story.

First off, when Nadal and his semifinal opponent, (#1 ranked Men's player) Novak Djokovic take the court, you see some of the best action in sport. No joke. If you don't believe me, there is a 6-hour Youtube video with your name on it from the 2012 Australian Open (and various clips posted of parts of the match, so you don't actually need to watch 6 hours of tennis). But, because of the tennis rankings and the way the draw works, Nadal and Djokovic played in the semifinals, a match that was, clearly, the best match of the tournament. Djokovic got ahead of Nadal in the final set, only for Nadal to comeback to take the win. Had Roger Federer, world #2, not lost in the quarterfinals, then maybe the final would have been a treat to watch.

I know that tennis has been doing things the way they have been for some time, but they should take some notes from the other major sports bracket systems used for playoffs. When they get down to 8 players, have them play each other based on rank. This will help avoid semifinals where the number 1 player matches up against the number 3, while the other match pins the number 4 and 6 players against each other.

If that Nadal/Djokovic match from the semifinals was played out in more finals (mixed in with the other players from the top 4), tennis would have some more success in the sports world.