Champion Tsitsipas confused by Next Gen ATP Final rules
Last updated on: 11 November,2018 06:45 pm
Players can communicate with their coaches through headsets, as per new rules.
(AFP) - Stefanos Tsitsipas capped a rollercoaster season by winning the Next Gen ATP Final on Saturday but the rising Greek star conceded he was slightly bemused by the rules of the tournament.
The 20-year-old from Athens came through 2-4, 4-1, 4-3 (7/3), 4-3 (7/3) on his third match point against 19-year-old Australian Alex de Minaur after one hour and 41 minutes to win his second career title after Stockholm last month.
"To be honest with you, I m confused myself. I don t really know what I liked and what I didn t like," said the Tsitsipas.
The round-robin tournament for players aged under 21 years has a shorter format than other tournaments, playing sets of first to four games, with tie breaks at 3-3.
It is designed to increase the number of pivotal moments in a match, while playing best-of-five sets does not alter the number of games required to win a match (12) from the traditional three-set scoring format.
"The games are very stressful. Obviously there s no advantage so you need to be twice more concentrated," said Tsitsipas, who has jumped from 91st at the start of the season to world number 15.
"But, I love those rules because I won."
Players can communicate with their coaches through headsets, with line calls using the Hawk-Eye Live system, backed up by a video review system.
This year for the first time a towel rack was placed at the back of court after Spaniard Fernando Verdasco came under fire for his treatment of a ball boy at last month s Shenzhen Open.
Tsitsipas -- an alternate in last year s inaugural edition of the tournament which was won by South Korea s Chung Hyeon -- declared he was "not a fan of the towel thing or the headset".
"The headset, I m not a big fan of it, but you could see from the reaction yesterday," he smiled, after smashing his headset in Friday s semi-final.
"No-let rule, we didn t have problems with it this week.
"Live Hawk-Eye was exciting ... very, very good. No mistakes. Very accurate. Very responsive... just much better than the human eye. So I love the live Hawk-Eye.
"Hopefully it can be put in more events in the future and be the innovation of the game," added Tsitsipas, who finished runner-up to Rafael Nadal in Barcelona and Toronto.