ATP 2008 Calendar

[Starlite]

The ATP's 2008 calendar is out on there website, with a few changes:

*Indian Wells and Miami are both one week instead of two.

*Sopot (clay court tournament in Poland) is played the first week after Roland Garros when the Wimbledon warm-ups usually begin.

*All the European clay court tournaments usually played during the US Open series are split between the first and second week of July.

*Toronto and Cincinnati are moved two weeks up

*The Beijing Olympics is played the same week as the tournament in Washington, and only one week before the US Open

The rest looks pretty much the same, but this still doesn't include Davis Cup dates. I know they're trying to re-vamp the schedule to make it easier on the guys, and the Olympics is another consideration all together, but this seems really convoluted to me.

 

[schnick_15]

5 Thoughts

1. Is it so strange because of the Olympics?

2. The ATP has been doing really bizzare (sp.) things lately, at least they did get rid of round robin.

3. Why are players supposed to go from the US to China to the eastern seaboard in a two week span.

4. Key Biscayne is getting hit hard by that fix, It'll be like this years Cincy, no amazing matches, lots of withdraws/retiring.

5. Why not move Sopot till after Wimbledon, during the same time as Umag?

 

[vive le beau jeu !]

1. Is it so strange because of the Olympics

obviously yes... it's like a domino chain !

2. The ATP has been doing really bizzare (sp.) things lately, at least they did get rid of round robin.

fortunately they did !

3. Why are players supposed to go from the US to China to the eastern seaboard in a two week span.

some players will even go back to asia after the US open !
(by the way it's a good year for chinese spectators: peking has the olympics + its usual tournament, and shanghai has the masters cup !)
for the schedule, i guess they didn't have the choice as they have to adapt to the date of the olympics and as they are limited for moving some tournaments.

4. Key Biscayne is getting hit hard by that fix, It'll be like this years Cincy, no amazing matches, lots of withdraws/retiring.

umm... KB and IW should still be played during 10-11 days according to this schedule.

5. Why not move Sopot till after Wimbledon, during the same time as Umag?

there are already 2 weeks with 4 tournaments at the same time !
i don't remember more than 3 tournaments being played the same week in the recent years... maybe it happened in the 70's or in the 80's ?

 

[Moose Malloy]

I wonder how serious Roger is about the Olympics, considering its proximity to the US Open. He may have to sacrifice one for the other.

 

[malakas]

The ATP's 2008 calendar is out on there website, with a few changes:

*Indian Wells and Miami are both one week instead of two.

*Sopot (clay court tournament in Poland) is played the first week after Roland Garros when the Wimbledon warm-ups usually begin.

*All the European clay court tournaments usually played during the US Open series are split between the first and second week of July.

*Toronto and Cincinnati are moved two weeks up

*The Beijing Olympics is played the same week as the tournament in Washington, and only one week before the US Open
The rest looks pretty much the same, but this still doesn't include Davis Cup dates. I know they're trying to re-vamp the schedule to make it easier on the guys, and the Olympics is another consideration all together, but this seems really convoluted to me.

That really sucks! Can't they do something about it?No,I guess.
Shame,I really wanted to see Roger winning the Gold,but I think the USO will be his priority.:/

 

[Fee]

Indian Wells is still 10 days, Miami is still 2 weeks.

 

[federerfanatic]

I wonder how serious Roger is about the Olympics, considering its proximity to the US Open. He may have to sacrifice one for the other.

Not really. This year he played 4 weeks of tennis in 5 weeks, with the 2 Masters and the U.S Open and he could easily have won all 3, the one he lost was the first final of the 3 tournaments and had nothing to do with fatigue. It is very doable for him to play 3 weeks of tennis in 4 weeks and win both.

 

[AAAA]

3. Why are players supposed to go from the US to China to the eastern seaboard in a two week span.

According to the pdf link in the original post, the USO starts on Aug 28 whilst the olympics fall between Aug 8-24 next year

See

http://www.mapsofworld.com/olympic-trivia/host-cities-of-olympics.html

Chances are the tennis will be played as early as possible if there has been any consultation between the Beijing olympic committee and the ITF/USTA bodies. If the ITF/USTA haven't expressed any concerns about scheduling then they should, seeing as the olympic date won't change and the event happens first.

 

[drakulie]

Indian Wells is still 10 days, Miami is still 2 weeks.

Oh, thank goodness!

 

[kimizz]

Isnt Roger very serious about olympics? Thats what I read, too lazy to find any article tho

 

[Moose Malloy]

Not really. This year he played 4 weeks of tennis in 5 weeks, with the 2 Masters and the U.S Open and he could easily have won all 3, the one he lost was the first final of the 3 tournaments and had nothing to do with fatigue. It is very doable for him to play 3 weeks of tennis in 4 weeks and win both.

its not just the tennis, but the travel that adds to fatigue. He mentioned that one of the reasons he skipped Paris last 2 years, was that it was too far from Shanghai & didn't want to make that kind of trip so close to the Masters Cup. He actually said if the Masters Cup was in Europe he would be more likely to play Paris, since travel wouldn't be an issue.

 

[Moose Malloy]

Chances are the tennis will be played as early as possible if there has been any consultation between the Beijing olympic committee and the ITF/USTA bodies. If the ITF/USTA haven't expressed any concerns about scheduling then they should, seeing as the olympic date won't change and the event happens first.

The Athens gold medal match was played on Sunday, exactly one week before the US Open started in '04. I don't expect the format will be any different in Beijing. and I don't expect many top players to enter.

Agassi & Hewitt were playing in DC while the Olympics were going on in '04.

 

[Fee]

The Olympic tennis event will take place in the week that it is shown on the calendar (that's why it's on the calendar). I also have to wonder how many of the top players will show up because of the distance and also because of the concerns about the air quality in Beijing that some athletes have already begun to express (still can't understand how China even got this event, but that's another topic).