My, how the world has changed. And all for the better, I think. In place of the once popular world tour of all-losers-eliminated 64-32-16-8-4 knockout tennis tournaments, the old 15-30-deuce-advantage games and sets, and those wonderfully informative (and devastating for all but the top 5) world rankings, we have ended up with a very different world indeed, a world of 40, or even 40 times 3 (= 120) undisputed world champions, of special events, of sub-category "bracket rankings", of three foreign visitor superstar heels per month, and of multiple titles that matter. Quite a number of titles that are important now in our new world and that each have different people out there gunning hard for a chance to win them.

How did we get here?

The ATP and WTA were both heading in the "slightly corrupt" direction, which was already dwindling the value of the sponsorship deals package, and then first the ATP and then also the WTA ended up selling out to a major media conglomerate, who then came up with other plans of their own, mainly of acquiring large and strategic media giants in Asia, in West Africa and in Latin America. They therefore put the entire sport up for sale again, and this time, a deal was struck, allowing our team of young and creative planners and thinkers here at BrainStorm to acquire a 54% stake in world tennis, payable in instalments over the next 35 years in a loan deal (we would not have had the cash to buy even 3% any other way). This way, we get to play and MediaCommsCorp gets to profit from our ground-breaking adventures.

Now let's be honest, most great inventions come into being with some inspiration, and our main inspiration has been a 2022 book by Joseph Oakwood, in which he pulls in all his fabulous new and crazy ideas, into tennis, in this fantastically successful way. Some of these ideas have their origins in performance wrestling, that's obvious and it is no secret, but what we ended up doing with it was not a scripted show, which predetermines how each match will end. Quite the opposite, each player is free to go out there, do his best, and if he or she wins enough points, to win the match. But we never said we were setting up a fully level playing field, at least not under all circumstances. In order to entice the big names back into the sport, along with a line-up of celebrities from other backgrounds, models, actors, activists, politicians, actresses, musicians, TV show presenters, and superstars from other sports, which was not achievable any other way, we ended up offering special "multipliers" that make it so that our actress, politician, musician, circus performer or magic show or catwalk star could beat any opponent and become the champion. There were some crazy negotiations done, and each deal always lasts for two whole years before it is up for review, changes and renegotiation.

Once this change had been brought in, which also required scrapping the games and sets, it came in very handy as a way of also giving us a chance to merge the two genders into one sport without being too hard on the women players. On top of the gender multiplier usage, and the special VIP lure-in deals, which by the way helped tremendously in getting us back on track of the revenue plans we had made when seeking to clear our 35-year loan off early. There were also opportunities to bring in special age-category brackets that always systematically favour the junior or senior player, opportunities for people who look extra-particularly good in pictures (and in interviews) to win sensational beauty- looks- or stud-hunk bonuses, dominance breaking actions, disadvantages for touring guests who are about to leave, and such clever strategic...