Dumbing down tennis

The ATP (Association of Professional Tennis), the organization that runs the men's tennis tour, has set about to ruin the game of tennis, at least insofar as doubles is concerned. Under a proposed rules change that will go into effect following the U.S. Open, matches will feature no-ad scoring, with tiebreaks at 4-4, rather than 6-6.

The elimination of ad-scoring in all women's matches has also been proposed by tennis legend Martina Navratilova, and it is the worst idea she has ever had. What would be the point of watching tennis without the ad point?! Every time a game goes to deuce, a new drama unfolds. The more it goes to deuce, the more drama there is for fans.

Eliminating the ad point and requiring fewer games to get to a tiebreak would make the matches shorter, which is another bad idea. But the point seems to be to sell tennis to non-tennis fans--people who might buy a ticket, but who don't want to waste their time watching high-quality, tension-filled matches while they wait for a glimpse of Maria Sharapova or Roger Federer.