What would your ideal schedule be If you were focused only on Grand Slams?

Flint

Flint

Hall of Fame
If you were one of these older top players who are allowed to pick and choose which tournaments you played, what would the ideal schedule be with the focus only and entirely on winning Grand Slams?

I am thinking something like:

Brisbane (plus doubles)
Australian Open.

Indian Wells (plus doubles)
Miami

Monte-Carlo (plus doubles)
Rome (plus doubles)
French Open

Queens Club/Halle (plus doubles)
Wimbledon

Washington
Rogers Cup or Cincinnati (plus doubles) (not both masters)
US Open

Shanghai
some pre Paris ATP 500
Paris
WTF (if qualified)

-The doubles tournaments to help dial in al court comfort and confidence in net play.
-Rogers cup OR Cincinnati: either Rogers cup and skip Cinci because you get more rest ahead of the US Open or skip Rogers cup and play Cinci because you get used to fast conditions. (Washington because it adds hard court matches while being early enough not to tire you out before the US Open).
 
K-H

K-H

Hall of Fame
Flint said:
If you were one of these older top players who are allowed to pick and choose which tournaments you played, what would the ideal schedule be with the focus only and entirely on winning Grand Slams?

I am thinking something like:

Brisbane (plus doubles)
Australian Open.

Indian Wells (plus doubles)
Miami

Monte-Carlo (plus doubles)
Rome (plus doubles)
French Open

Queens Club/Halle (plus doubles)
Wimbledon

Washington
Rogers Cup or Cincinnati (plus doubles) (not both masters)
US Open

Shanghai
some pre Paris ATP 500
Paris
WTF (if qualified)

-The doubles tournaments to help dial in al court comfort and confidence in net play.
-Rogers cup OR Cincinnati: either Rogers cup and skip Cinci because you get more rest ahead of the US Open or skip Rogers cup and play Cinci because you get used to fast conditions. (Washington because it adds hard court matches while being early enough not to tire you out before the US Open).
Click to expand...


Why play IW and Miami if you're only focussed on winning Grand slams? There's no point playing them when there's no hardcourt GS straight after.
 
Krish872007

Krish872007

Talk Tennis Guru
Hopman Cup Exhibition
Australian Open

Monte Carlo - maybe
Rome
Roland Garros

Halle
Wimbledon

Cincinnati
US Open

This is what I would do if I cared solely about Slams.
 
D

Deleted member 688153

Guest
If I was a pro and wasn't a consistent Top 2-3 player I would probably be resigned to not winning much in the way of slams. I would actually try to vulture as much as I could.
I'd definitely play Madrid, Canada, and Paris, which often have depleted fields. I would probably try to play a lot of clay and grass, too, which have less competition.
 
Flint

Flint

Hall of Fame
K-H said:
Why play IW and Miami if you're only focussed on winning Grand slams? There's no point playing them when there's no hardcourt GS straight after.
Click to expand...
My thinking there is that it is so far away from the French Open that you don't want to go too extreme on not playing tournaments and be too rusty from lack of match play.
 
Flint

Flint

Hall of Fame
Krish872007 said:
Hopman Cup Exhibition
Australian Open

Monte Carlo - maybe
Rome
Roland Garros

Halle
Wimbledon

Cincinnati
US Open

This is what I would do if I cared solely about Slams.
Click to expand...
That certainly covers the needing rest and not burning out aspect of things, though there might be a danger of being too rusty from lack of matches with that schedule?
You wouldn't add any doubles play then?
 
Flint

Flint

Hall of Fame
Firstservingman said:
If I was a pro and wasn't a consistent Top 2-3 player I would probably be resigned to not winning much in the way of slams. I would actually try to vulture as much as I could.
I'd definitely play Madrid, Canada, and Paris, which often have depleted fields. I would probably try to play a lot of clay and grass, too, which have less competition.
Click to expand...
haha yes, "vulturing" 250/500's is a good option for an ageing top player as well.
 
D

Deleted member 688153

Guest
Flint said:
haha yes, "vulturing" 250/500's is a good option for an ageing top player as well.
Click to expand...
I would play Barca, Halle, and Beijing like clockwork. Or the South American ones that no-one shows up for.
 
D

Deleted member 688153

Guest
Aiming to peak post-USO could be good. Everyone is tired/doesn't care, plus indoors is niche conditions and there are less players who can bring their best level there. Same as clay and grass.

Outdoor HC early in the season would be the worst. The AO, IW, and Miami all have full draws with fresh players and are the surface that the majority of players are the best at.
 
Flint

Flint

Hall of Fame
Firstservingman said:
I would play Barca, Halle, and Beijing like clockwork. Or the South American ones that no-one shows up for.
Click to expand...
If I was going for vulturing then I would play Brisbane, 2 250/500's in February (probably buenos aires would be one of them) Barcalona, queens, newport, Washington etc.

In the fall season I would do Murrays 2014 fall season minus Shanghai for rest, Schenzen, China Open, Vienna, Valencia, Paris.

In the clay season, I would skip Monte-Carlo and replace with Munich (does that clash with Barcalona?). I would skip Miami as well to be fresh and prepared for it.

edit: probably skip IW as well for the reason you said.
 
Krish872007

Krish872007

Talk Tennis Guru
Flint said:
That certainly covers the needing rest and not burning out aspect of things, though there might be a danger of being too rusty from lack of matches with that schedule?
You wouldn't add any doubles play then?
Click to expand...

Maybe doubles at Hopman Cup and maybe doubles only at Indian Wells just to test out the net game, though it depends on a player's style.

The biggest issue would be rust I guess - can't really do much before the AO or after the US Open
 
D

Deleted member 688153

Guest
Flint said:
If I was going for vulturing then I would play Brisbane, 2 250/500's in February (probably buenos aires would be one of them) Barcalona, queens, newport, Washington etc.

In the fall season I would do Murrays 2014 fall season minus Shanghai for rest, Schenzen, China Open, Vienna, Valencia, Paris.

In the clay season, I would skip Monte-Carlo and replace with Munich (does that clash with Barcalona?). I would skip Miami as well to be fresh and prepared for it.

edit: probably skip IW as well for the reason you said.
Click to expand...
Brisbane can be more stacked though. I'd probably do a Ferrer and play Auckland and 's-Hertogenbosch, and Valencia (is it still running?). And yeah, Munich and Newport.
Barca, Queens/Halle and Washington often have good players. Avoid.

I'd probably do Hamburg and Gstaad too if possible. Nobody ever plays those.
 
D

Deleted member 688153

Guest
And yeah I'd skip IW/Miami. Grueling tournaments with a lot of competition, and then I cut out the trip to the US too.
 
Flint

Flint

Hall of Fame
Firstservingman said:
Brisbane can be more stacked though. I'd probably do a Ferrer and play Auckland and 's-Hertogenbosch, and Valencia (is it still running?). And yeah, Munich and Newport.
Barca, Queens/Halle and Washington often have good players. Avoid.

I'd probably do Hamburg and Gstaad too if possible. Nobody ever plays those.
Click to expand...
Maybe replace FO and Queens/Halle with Stuttgart.
 
Flint

Flint

Hall of Fame
haha we could have the ultimate vulture schedule here

Auckland, skip AO, 2 clay events in Feb, skip IW and Miami, Munich, Barcalona, Madrid and Rome??, skip, FO, Stuttgart, Wimbledon, Newport, skip US Open series, then a bunch of 250's and 500's in the fall, skipping Shanghai. Im not even sure what order they come in If you add Hamburg and Gstaad.
 
TheAverageFedererFan

TheAverageFedererFan

Professional
Here would be my schedule.

Doha
Australian Open
Dubai
Indian Wells
Miami
Madrid
Rome
French Open
Halle
Wimbledon
Canada
Cincinnati
US Open
Shanghai
Basel
Paris
World Tour Finals (If Qualified)
 
fedtennisphan

fedtennisphan

Hall of Fame
aman92 said:
Skip the entire clay season to avoid humiliation from your closest rival
Click to expand...

Then that rivals fanbase be butthurt because he lost to that player several times including a GS final then only cares about that player not playing clay due to wanting revenge.
 
mike danny

mike danny

Bionic Poster
It's really simple. Play an AO warm-up, preferably Brisbane as it is still in Australia, play 2 masters on clay before RG, preferably MC and Madrid as they are spaced, play 1 grass warm-up before Wimb and then play preferably Cincy before the USO.

Easy peasy.
 
BeatlesFan

BeatlesFan

Bionic Poster
K-H said:
Why play IW and Miami if you're only focussed on winning Grand slams? There's no point playing them when there's no hardcourt GS straight after.
Click to expand...

Good point, but if you care about slams only, you must care about ranking. It's very rare that you have someone like Fed come into a slam ranked #17 and win it, but then again, that's Federer, not a mere mortal.

Playing IW and Miami are really necessary to wrack up points to bolster or maintain your ranking.
 
  • Like
Reactions: K-H
mike danny

mike danny

Bionic Poster
BeatlesFan said:
Good point, but if you care about slams only, you must care about ranking. It's very rare that you have someone like Fed come into a slam ranked #17 and win it, but then again, that's Federer, not a mere mortal.

Playing IW and Miami are really necessary to wrack up points to bolster or maintain your ranking.
Click to expand...
I guess that's one way of looking at things.

Still, IW and Miami don't serve as warm-ups for anything. That's why I never understood their higher status compared to other masters 1000 (given that these 2 events are played over 2 weeks and provide a larger field of players).
 
F

Fedforever

Hall of Fame
BeatlesFan said:
Yeah, a guy with 19 slams, 300 weeks at #1 and by far the biggest name in tennis is accustomed to feeling "humiliation."

Epic fail.
Click to expand...

It's weird how Fed being sensible and prioritising the tournaments where he has most chance of winning is portrayed as moral weakness. Actually, one thing I've always admired about Fed is his ability to see things as they are. He freely says that he wouldn't have beaten Rafa at FO this year. What really annoys the VB is that he doesn't care.

And if Rafa in a couple of years decides to skip Wimbledon to maximise his chances elsewhere then he has the right to do that too.
 
BeatlesFan

BeatlesFan

Bionic Poster
Fedforever said:
It's weird how Fed being sensible and prioritising the tournaments where he has most chance of winning is portrayed as moral weakness.
Click to expand...

It's considered a "moral weakness" only by the *************. Everyone else on the planet realizes what a brilliant move it was to skip clay, and Fed will almost surely skip it for the rest of his career. Fed announced right after winning Miami that he was skipping it to "maximize my chances of winning Wimbledon."

He achieved his goal and completely vindicated his decision. I guess the ************* don't realize that at age 35, skipping clay is the wise thing to do and you can get other players will follow suit in the coming years when they get ancient like Fed.
 
F

Fedforever

Hall of Fame
BeatlesFan said:
It's considered a "moral weakness" only by the *************. Everyone else on the planet realizes what a brilliant move it was to skip clay, and Fed will almost surely skip it for the rest of his career. Fed announced right after winning Miami that he was skipping it to "maximize my chances of winning Wimbledon."

He achieved his goal and completely vindicated his decision. I guess the ************* don't realize that at age 35, skipping clay is the wise thing to do and you can get other players will follow suit in the coming years when they get ancient like Fed.
Click to expand...

They do know it. It's just they want Fed to be agonizing over the fact that he never beat Rafa at RG, not accepting it and getting on with his life.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Flint
How would you schedule the rest of Nadals year for winning the big tournaments only?
Replies
7
Views
274
tex123
T
N
What should Roger's pared down schedule for 2018 look like according to you?
Replies
47
Views
1K
fedtennisphan
fedtennisphan
S
Make Your Own Schedule
Replies
20
Views
1K
jaggy
jaggy
T
Hard courts to be banned? Hard court injuries depleting tennis ranks
2
Replies
61
Views
7K
racquetreligion
racquetreligion
F
Masters Series, Masters Cup Streamed On Web
Replies
14
Views
4K
jhm36
J
Top