Rafael Nadal will headline a field of tennis greats at an exhibition tournament demonstrating fast4 tennis.
Fast4 is commonly known as the ‘twenty20 of tennis’ with four points in four games per set. Unlike the current scoring system use on the tennis tour, there are no advantage scoring, let calls are played and tiebreakers occur at 3-3 as supposed to the usual 6-6. Trials of Fast4 tennis has been held across Australia since 2014.
The game won’t be unfamiliar for Nadal, who played an exhibition event earlier this year at Melbourne Park using the same format. In one of his matches he played former player Mark Philippoussis. Following Nadal’s win, his rival didn’t appear to be a big fan of the fast4 format.
‘It was too quick, I feel like I didn’t get a chance to take it all in,’ Philippoussis said.
Joining Nadal in the 2016 exhibition will be Gael Monfils, John McEnroe, Lleyton Hewitt, Nick Kyrgios and Pat Cash. Speaking about Nadal’s appearance in the event, recently retired Hewitt praised the Spaniards work ethic and labelled him as ‘a great role model’.
“Rafa’s attitude is second to none and not only is he a great competitor, he’s a great bloke off the court as well,” Hewitt told The Daily Telegraph.
“He’s a great role model for a lot of Australian kids in sport in general. He has that never say die attitude and the buzz he creates around the event is huge. The top players don’t want to overdo it the week before the Open”.
Another player who has taken part in Fast4 tennis is Roger Federer. The 17-time Grand Slam champion played Lleyton Hewitt in January this year, defeating him 4-3 (5-3), 2-4, 3-4 (3-5), 4-0, 4-2 after 90 minutes. The idea of the game is to reduce the length of matches and create excitement for viewers. On the other hand Federer has said that the unpredictability of a match is what makes tennis unique.
“The beauty of our game sometimes is not knowing if you’re going to be on court for 45 minutes or three hours,” Federer said.
“I know sometimes that’s hard for TV because in soccer and other sports you know exactly how long you are going to be playing. You beat the clock and you’re fine, but in tennis you have to run over the finish line by hitting a winner.”
The upcoming FAST4 exhibition will take place in January in the lead-up to the Australian Open. It will be the first time that Nadal has played in Sydney since the 2007 Sydney International Open.
