So 2025 begins. A few things Ive learnt from this year, courtesy of some inputs from others like Indy or TA!
And some things to muse on!
1) I get hung up on how many votes we get - I know that and it annoys me, Im sorry. But I just like to see more votes. But I wont chase them in future!
2) PoM votes - Ill start them Monday mornings in future, not Sunday nights, and therefore final nominations can close Monday once all play is definitely over.
3) 3 days is too long for a vote - the pace is too slow. And so if they start Monday morning Ill close them Tuesday night - two full evenings is enough and if anyone forgets to vote or is away, that's life. There's always next month!
4) the PoS vote end to end with 3 rounds works well, I believe - but with 2 days per vote and 3 days for the final, it stretched too long; I'll tighten it up next time; instead of Wednesday for the wildcard start to the following Sunday (.ie 12 days) we can cut that to 8 days and Sunday to Sunday by 1 1/2 days per vote and start the next vote soon after. It will create a better momentum and less quiet times, even if we lose a few votes
5) and I wont get fixated on votes numbers next year. I think I said that already.
6) PoM and PoS votes will not have ties in finals this season - we need winners and by making sure the initial vote is 1 1/2 days (noting we may still have groups when nominations are more than 20 any given month), I can accommodate adding in a tie break play off vote to ensure we get a clear winner in the 2025 cycle
7) Wildcard nominations - I will shorten the timescale for these so we don't have a) as many nominations and b) so it doesn't drag out over a whole month. Most likely, I will ask for nominations in weeks 51/52 when the tennis action has really slowed down, as opposed to the whole of December as it was this year
8) is there room for a final 2 vote off head to head, as per Andy Parkers suggestion - maybe one to consider nearer the time next year?
-- Edited by JonH comes home on Sunday 12th of January 2025 09:43:32 PM
-- Edited by JonH comes home on Wednesday 15th of January 2025 04:38:14 PM
So here is the calendar for 2025 (subject to change at the whim of the organising committee i.e. me!!)
Jan PoM - Vote will take place Monday 3rd February (after end of week 5 ie end of Davis Cup weekend) - 5 week period
Feb PoM - Vote will take place Monday 3rd March (after end of week 9 i.e end of ATP 500 Dubai and end of WTA 500 Merida) - 4 week period
Mar PoM - Vote will take place Monday 31st March (after end of week 13 i.e end of Miami 1000 event) - 4 week period
Apr PoM - Vote will take place Monday 28th April (after end of week 17 i.e this will be mid way through Madrid 1000 event, but given FO dates, I feel this is best option - plus not many Brits go far in Madrid!) - 4 week period
May PoM - Vote will take place Monday 26th May (after end of week 21 i.e start of the FO and end of FO qualies) - 4 week period
Jun PoM - Vote will take place Monday 30th June (after end of week 26 and Wimbledon qualies and as Wimbledon starts) - 5 week period
HALFWAY POINT IN THE TENNIS YEAR
Jul PoM - Vote will take place Monday 28th July (after end of week 30 i.e end of Washington 500 events) - 4 week period
Aug PoM - Vote will take place Monday 25th August (after end of week 34 and US Open qualies) - 4 week period
Sep PoM - Vote will take place Monday 29th Sept (after end of week 39 i.e mid way through the WTA China Open, as per this year - not ideal but otherwise we hit a 6 week period in Sep or October) - 5 weeks
Oct PoM - Vote will take place Monday 3rd November (after end of week 44 i.e end of Paris 1000 event) - 5 weeks
Nov PoM - Vote will take place Monday 1st December (after end of week 48) - 4 weeks
Dec PoM - Vote will take place Monday 29th December (after end of week 52) - 4 weeks
PoS Wildcard vote - 1st - 2nd Jan 2026
PoS Group One Vote - 4th - 5th Jan 2026
PoS Semi Final Vote - 6th - 7th Jan 2026
PoS Final - 8th to 9th Jan 2026 2026
PoS Final Two - to be decided if we have one or not. I am not sure, to be honest, whether it adds a lot and I think 3 rounds of voting is enough, particularly as it follows wildcard votes and December PoM vote in quick succession
-- Edited by JonH comes home on Wednesday 15th of January 2025 04:40:08 PM
In terms of qualifying for Player of the Season, players can qualify through 4 main means:
January to December Players of the Season and Month awards - winner and runner up; in theory this could be up to 24 players but there will be duplicates and ties etc, so who knows
Grand Slam winners - players winning GS titles in Mens/womens singles and doubles, mixed doubles, junior boys/girls singles and doubles, wheelchair mens/womens/quad singles and doubles
GB Number Ones - our year end number ones in mens and womens singles and doubles, junior boys and girls and wheelchair mens, womens and quad singles
Wildcards - as per this year, there will be a wild card vote to top the field up to the target number
Past few seasons we have had 28 players through the above means incl wild cards and hope to land on that again, although it could be anywhere!
-- Edited by JonH comes home on Wednesday 15th of January 2025 04:40:31 PM
Katie Boulter, Sonay Kartal and Henry Patten have all been in 2 finals
We have had 14 mens finalists to 7 women (or 13/7 if we count Julian and Henry as 1!)
We have had 3 mens winners to 2 womens
We have had 6 of the 20 finals places taken by doubles specialists
We have had just one wheelchair player in a finals, Alfie back in 2020. He has gone onto more and bigger things since.
Andy has never been in a final; Dan just once; Cam just once; the big mens singles players havent really dominated. But then, Emma has also just been in it once as well
-- Edited by JonH comes home on Wednesday 15th of January 2025 04:41:07 PM
(good year on year increases, another near 10% increase this year would be good. Ideally I want to see us hit 60 plus votes this year and more than once)
(good year on year increases, another near 10% increase this year would be good. Ideally I want to see us hit 60 plus votes this year and more than once)
That does look good doesn't it, for all you so often get your knickers in a twist re the level of votes
However, no harm in keeping aiming high, and now with a dedicated PoM / PoS section to maybe help.
Jusf wanted to say that I liked the timings of having a dedicated Dec PoM vote (we got a lot of interesting nominations that may have got lost by the time we got to a Dec/Jan vote) and I liked doing the PoS vote in January, but I agree that shortening each voting period a little seems like a good idea. (And will give you less time to obsess over vote numbers!)
And I really appreciate how open you are to taking feedback and trying to improve how things run without turning yourself inside out to accommodate every suggestiion.
Jusf wanted to say that I liked the timings of having a dedicated Dec PoM vote (we got a lot of interesting nominations that may have got lost by the time we got to a Dec/Jan vote) and I liked doing the PoS vote in January, but I agree that shortening each voting period a little seems like a good idea. (And will give you less time to obsess over vote numbers!)
And I really appreciate how open you are to taking feedback and trying to improve how things run without turning yourself inside out to accommodate every suggestiion.
Thank you Tanaqui! The two things on my mind now are around whether a final 2 vote off (this year it would have been Katie v Jake) is worth the extra voting round or just drags it all out longer? Im not certain and am very open to input on that interesting idea from Andy Parker.
Im ditching the ties this year in favour of all votes having a tie break vote off if they need them, so that will be a small change. We had 6 ties last year, be interesting to see if we get any ties in the initial votes this year!
And the other area playing in my mind is the wild card votes and nominations process and how to run that. I may shorten the nominations process time window down to the period between Xmas and New Year and really tighten it up, so we will get less nominees but hopefully more valid ones. But plenty of time to deal with that!
