When the Grand Slam Board announced in November that seeding at the Majors will be halved from 32 to 16 from 2019 onwards, it received mixed responses.
Roger Federer, for one, was all for the change, but not many shared the 19-time Grand Slam winner’s opinion.
Marin Cilic, the 2014 US Open champion, is not too happy with the change and believes that tennis should not go in that direction.
When asked whether the move to reduce seeded players at Grand Slams was a good idea, Cilic initially said it is tough to say, but admitted that he is not too sure what purpose it serves, except to make the sport television friendly.
Incidentally, the decision to double the seeding was also done keeping TV audiences in mind.
“I am a traditional player, I don’t like those changes. I don’t know what it is going to bring to tennis, maybe just for TV, for those first couple of rounds,” Cilic told reporters after his quarterfinal win at the Tata Open Maharashtra on Thursday.
The world No 6 also said that the decision should have been taken after due consultation with the players and not foisted upon them arbitrarily.
“That’s not where tennis should go, I think tennis should be turned to the players and discuss with the players what is best to do. Not for me, making those kind of decisions from the blue sky. It can be good sometimes, but most of the times not that good,” he added.
Halving the number of seeds in Grand Slams is an attempt to make the early rounds of the Majors more interesting as it will open the possibility of higher-ranked players facing off before the last 16.
There were 16 seeds at Grand Slams until after Wimbledon in 2001, when the US Open, motivated by demands from television networks, asked for 32 in the hope that stars would still be in contention in the closing rounds.
But this new rule change means the top players could meet someone ranked as high as 17 or 18 in the first round itself.
Federer had supported the change saying that it’s how it used to be when he came up. “There’s definitely something intriguing about having 16 seeds. I do see the problem of the 32 seeds, plus you have eight seeds who get byes at Masters 1000 [events],” he was quoted as saying.
“You have these stairs that can make you feel safe and I feel like there’s too many to get to the top,” Federer said. “It’s hard to drop out and it’s hard to get into. Having 16 seeds? That might be interesting. The draw could be more volatile, [with] better matches in the first week. The top guys have made a habit of not cruising but getting through the first week quite comfortably for a long period of time,” Federer added. “Playing against the 17, 19 or 20 in the world is not something I really want to do, but it is what it is,” he had said.
Back to the Tata Open, the Croatian Cilic needed only 65 minutes to overpower eighth seed Pierre-Hugues Herbert 6-3, 6-2 and reach the semifinals in Pune. He will play Gilles Simon, who knocked out defending champion Roberto Bautista Agut, next.