Scheduling----back to clay??

Question

I will never understand the scheduling of play on surfaces. The season starts off on hard court leading into Australian Open. Then there are hard courts after that slam, with a 4 month time period before the French which is on clay, which most tourneys dont start till March. Then they have 2 weeks to get ready for grass and then Wimbledon. Now with US Open approaching, they have clay tourneys going on again. I mean what gives? I woudl think that the players would want to get onto the hard courts to get ready for the Open and not back to clay. NO wonder its so hard on their bodies and so many injuries. What are your thoughts and what would you change, if anything?

Answer 1

You have to keep in mind that US Open also used to be played on clay back in the days, so the clay tournaments after Wimbledon were also a tuneup for the US Open.  There are less and less of them though.  

Also, don't forget that European courts are mainly clay, so it would be a shame if all of those tournaments were killed off since that would mean no tennis tournaments in Europe during the summer.  

Overall though it's nice that players have the option to choose a different surface.  If a player knows that he'll be knocked out of French Open early, for example (i.e. Roddick), what's the point of him spending months on clay when he can pick up a title or two on hard courts?  I think the players should evaluate their own game and pick their tournaments based on their abilities.

Answer 2

Well, I can't think of anything that would change or improve this program, but I still can enjoy watching tennis... and I don't mind the surfaces anyway as long as their are great matches that will be played...

Answer 3

its odd, and it does not make sense  for them to be doing any clay right now.. no sense at all..

i think once the french open is over.. that should be the end of clay.... especially if they already had 3 months of it...

Answer 4

Tennis is such a demanding game.  Players need to have more flexibility in the tournaments that they play, and the surfaces that they play on.  We would see fewer injuries and would see higher quality tennis if players didn't play so many matches on surfaces that change every other week.