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I read today on the Tennis World USA site that 35 year-old Yen-Hsun Lu (pictured above), who is is currently recovering from shoulder surgery, has come out against the ITF reforms and two-ranking system, describing it as “the worst possible thing they could have done to the lower-ranked players and making it tough for the most of those to even enter tournaments and compete.”
He continues: ”I am Rendy Lu; ATP player; and just recovering from a shoulder operation. I’m practicing with some juniors and ITF players in Taiwan. I have heard about their problems with the new ITF Tour and how much they are suffering.
“I feel sorry for them, and I want to support them. As a member of the ATP council, I can say that I have never heard that the ATP decided to take the points away from the Futures and that my colleagues or I wanted this. It’s ridiculous that since 2019 we have two rankings; the ATP and the ITF World Tennis Tour ranking.
“I realize that under these conditions, it’s nearly impossible to make a smart tournament schedule for the upcoming players. So I ask ITF to stop this ranking nonsense immediately; stop the World Tennis Tour ranking since there is only one ranking which gives a sense for tennis, that being the ATP ranking.
In addition, I got aware that the reduction of playing possibilities through the ITF makes it nearly impossible for a lot of players to participate in professional tennis tournaments. This doesn’t give any sense for me.”
“It should be our goal to motivate these players to compete; to play our wonderful sport instead of trying to kick them out of it. So I ask ITF to open up the qualifications and let more players compete. This has to be done immediately.”
Read the full story here.
