Shouldn't the Grasscourt season be longer?

Question

Yeah I know it's not the right time since its the Claycourt season now. I know there are many problems with the schedule in Tennis, as many players have always been complaining about it. I always wondered why they never made the Grasscourt season longer, its like only a couple of weeks, soo short.

Answer 1

yeah i agree. the tennis season now favors clay courters. THe clay courters can rack up more points than grass courters can because of the longer season. i think it's unfair

Answer 2

Yes I completely agree with you!

I think there are too many hardcourt tournaments.

Answer 3

The tennis schedule definetely needs some tweaks here and there, but I would only make minor changes. Here is how the tennis calader should be arrainged:

1. Winter all-court season: should include all tune up events leading up to the Australian Open, the events played in the middle east, carpet and indoor events held in Europe and North America, the first two masters events (Pacific Life Open and Sony Ericsson Open), and the smaller claycourt events held in Europe, Africa and South America. I do think the Australian Open should be moved back a week or two and the Middle eastern events moved closer to the beginning of the season. This would allow for a longer pre-season for the Australian Open. The season should last from January through March.

2. Claycourt season: This season should go from April to the beginning of June and include the masters claycourt events (Monte Carlo, Rome and Hamburg) and the North American claycourt events leading up to the French Open. The smaller claycourt events should be moved up to the winter all-court season to shorten the claycourt season.

3. Grasscourt season: The grasscourt season should last from the middle of June through to the end of July with Nottingham, Eastborne, Queens Club, Halle AND Newport (moved up before Wimbledon) and the season ending with Wimbledon a couple weeks later than normal.

4. Summer hardcourt season: Starting right after Wimbledon with the smaller events of the US Open series followed by the Rogers Cup and Cincinnati Masters, the final two US Open series events and then the US Open.

5. The final leg of the tennis tour should be shortened so that the Masters Cup and WTA Championships happen by the first week in November. The Paris Masters and Madrid should stay back to back but moved up in the calander a couple weeks so that the season ends earlier.

Answer 4

Good point.

Answer 5

yes, it should be as long as the clay season.

Answer 6

It would be great to have a longer grass season but the way both the WTA and ATP calendars are arranged these days makes it extremely difficult. There is barely a few days gap for all players between one tournament and the next so I don't see where it would fit.

Remember the French Open only finishes two weeks before Wimbledon starts with Queens Club (men) and Eastbourne (women) lying in between and I don't see Roland Garros agreeing to move their slam forward by a few weeks as it would have a domino effect on everything.

It's not so long ago that all of the Grand Slams (except French ) were played on grass but as all players are now used to playing on clay or hard surfaces for 49 of the 52 weeks, I doubt even they would want the grass court season

extended.

The other problem is the maintenance of the courts etc and the wear and tear on the grass and the fact that it takes so much longer for the grass to dry out after rain - we've all seen players complain about dangerous slippy surfaces at Wimbledon so I doubt they would agree to it unfortunately.

It would also increase the chances of the boom power servers with their aces like Ivo Karlovic at the expense of more talented players who don't have a killer server but a better all-round game.

I'm sure quite a few of us have yawned whilst watching a match between hard servers on Wimbledon's grass with not a rally in sight !

Answer 7

Definitely.  It's like it is treated as the "exotic" surface even though it was the original surface (I guess because it is so rare nowadays). There are tons of clay courts in Europe and South America, and obviously tons of hard courts throughout the world, so it makes sense that there would be more tournaments on those surfaces, but I think it would be good for the sport to have more grass tournaments, and also more grass courts throughout the world.

Answer 8

I agree, the grass court season should be longer.  With everything already said, I agree it would be too much of a stretch to extend it.

Answer 9

Yes, I agree.  I like tournaments played on grass.  I think that these tournaments would have to be played after Wimbledon, though, because of the French Open.   (I believe that there are clay court tournaments scheduled after Wimbledon, also).

There are also too many hard court tournaments.  I think that more of a balance should be found so that clay court or defensive players have more of a chance to dominate the game.

Answer 10

YES! personally,i think the summer hard court season should be shortened by a tourney or two,so they can lengthen the grass season and allow these players to get a better feel of the surface. that transition from clay to grass on the footing aspects has to be extremely aggravating for these players.

Answer 11

That has been topic of discussion, argumented many times. The time in between of clay and grass is all too short and something needs to be done. It causes players to raise even more injuries with the adjustment of surface, and on this level they need to come up with a formula of having enough time between slams, and the clay court, grass season. As well as less tournaments in the calendar year so their bodies can adjust and hopefully avoid injury. The French, Wimbledon and US Open are just way too close together. A 3 month period in fact. Where you have after The Australian 4 whole months in between. I mean dont they realize that?! IN that 4 month period they play hard court tourneys, ( AFTER Australian Open ), then boom, right to clay, whats that all about? The scheduling is so poorly situated, so disrespectful to the players especially these days where the players perform on a much different level than years ago, and much more taxing on the body. Time for change as they say.

Answer 12

I think it would be good for the players to have a couple more weeks of grass court tournaments to prepare before Wimbledon, but I don't think the powers-that-be would ever do that, because that would mean moving the French Open up a couple of weeks in the schedule.  Adding more grass court events after Wimbledon would be pointless, since most players begin their preparation for the U.S. Open at that time.

Answer 13

I completely agree with you, it is a delight to watch grass court tennis... and there certainly isn't enough of it in the year.  However I agree with everyone else here in that even if other locales could have grass courts [ which would be a difficult feat in itself ], the problem is the schedule.  The grass court tournaments are squeezed in between 2 very long clay and hard court seasons, with very little room to spare time-wise considering that most of the tournaments on tour take place in the northern hemisphere.

Answer 14

yeah i agree