More grass-court tournaments for the tennis players in the future – Tennis News
With increasing hard court tournaments on the ATP World Tour, the traditional grass court game has been suffering in the recent past. It was worth noting that three of the four Grand Slam tournaments use to be played on grassy
surface until 1975 but the Wimbledon Championships is the only Major event left at the present. The Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) has being fighting a rearguard battle for the past many years and finally significant changes have been approved to increase the
number of grass court tournaments in the professional tennis circuit.
The LTA has planned to shift the game’s balance of power and a gap of one extra week will be introduced between the French Open and the Wimbledon Championships from 2015 season. This vital break will include more grass court tournaments
for both ATP and WTA, so that players get sufficient practice to shift their momentum from slower clay courts to the faster grass surface prior to take part in the third Grand Slam tournament of the year.
Events across Europe have shown interest in assisting LTA to bridge this gap and the ATP tournament organizers at Hamburg, Stuttgart and Gstaad plan to convert their courts to grass in the next couple of years. The tournament director
of Stuttgart, Edwin Weindorfer, has planned to convert five of the 27 courts to grass, believing it will attract more players in the future tournaments. "A lot of the players I talk to, including the top players, feel it's more comfortable for their knees
and their bodies to play on grass, especially when compared with hard courts," he cited.
On the other hand, WTA also desires to extend the number of grass court tournaments to six, providing more practicing opportunities to the women tennis players before competing at Wimbledon.
"We have a very good relationship with the tennis federations in countries like Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands and we're working together on this,” cited the LTA Chief Executive, Roger Draper.
“It's in everybody's interests to see more of the top players playing more grass-court tennis."
WTA currently holds three pre-Wimbledon grass court events (a Premier-level tournament in Eastbourne and two International tournaments in Edgbaston and s-Hertogenbosch) and these numbers will be doubled respectively in the 2015
season. LTA is determined to take significant steps to revive the original grass court tennis across the globe and such changes in the schedule will yield better results and tough competitions in the future.
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