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SPORTS> Feature and Column
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Bring on the music, says Kuznetsova
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-10-04 15:08 POINTS SYSTEM "There's always a danger," he acknowledged. "I remember when I was in Hanover directing the Masters we tried to avoid that on Friday we had dead matches and I don't know if it's 100 percent possible to avoid this. "I think you have to find a points system in which you get awarded prize money and points for a win and you are punished if you lose. That's the only system one can think of. There is a slight danger and one has to think of things in more detail." WTA Tour president Stacey Allaster said the question of how many matches a player faced in a season would be addressed. "We would look at the potential number of matches a top player would play," Allaster told Reuters. "We would look at if she were to win her group in the round robin and go the distance to the final, how many total matches within the year would that format kick out at for a top athlete. The load on our athletes is a critical issue we are studying intensely. "With all these innovations, while we enhance the entertainment value of women's tennis we want to do it in a manner that maintains the integrity of women's professional tennis, the competitive environment, so the athlete can perform to her maximum ability. "And we want to do it in a way that is culturally respective to the different places in the world that we play. What works in Asia might not work the best in Europe or North America. We are taking all those factors into account with the common goal of engaging our fans."
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