Open Stance
Hall of Fame
With today's thrilling conclusion of the Western and Southern Open in Cincinnati it seems like it's a good time to reflect on the future of the North American hard court schedule going forward. For those that aren't aware, the ATP is expanding most of the M1000 tournaments from week long events with 56 player fields to 12 day events with 96 player fields, as is the case with Indian Wells and Miami today. They plan to convert both Madrid, Rome and Shanghai to 12 day tournaments next year followed by Canada and Cincinnati(?) in 2025.
The current North American schedule is already jam packed with seven tournaments taking place during the six week period between Wimbledon and USO. In addition to Canada and Cincinnati, you have Newport, Atlanta, Washington DC, Los Cabos and Winston Salem. Having back-to-back M1000s in consecutive weeks has been a problem as it is extremely difficult to recover in time for Cincy when you make a strong run in Canada. In fact, they start Cincinnati before Canada is even finished. With seven tournaments occupying a 6 week period, something has to give when you expend the M1000s to two week events.
Looking ahead to the summer of 2025, Wimbledon (assuming it doesn't move) will take place 30 Jun - 13 July. USO will take place 25 Aug - 7 September (Labor Day is on Sept 1 in 2025). That means the schedule would look something like this:
30 Jun - 13 July Wimbledon
14 - 20 July Newport?
22 July - 3 Aug Canada M1000
6 - 17 Aug WSO M1000
17 - 23 Aug Winston Salem?
24 Aug - 7 Sept USO
So what happens to Atlanta, Washington DC and Los Cabos? (And Newport and Winston Salem for that matter). Are some of these smaller tournaments going to die? The European clay tournaments are probably facing a similar issue.
The current North American schedule is already jam packed with seven tournaments taking place during the six week period between Wimbledon and USO. In addition to Canada and Cincinnati, you have Newport, Atlanta, Washington DC, Los Cabos and Winston Salem. Having back-to-back M1000s in consecutive weeks has been a problem as it is extremely difficult to recover in time for Cincy when you make a strong run in Canada. In fact, they start Cincinnati before Canada is even finished. With seven tournaments occupying a 6 week period, something has to give when you expend the M1000s to two week events.
Looking ahead to the summer of 2025, Wimbledon (assuming it doesn't move) will take place 30 Jun - 13 July. USO will take place 25 Aug - 7 September (Labor Day is on Sept 1 in 2025). That means the schedule would look something like this:
30 Jun - 13 July Wimbledon
14 - 20 July Newport?
22 July - 3 Aug Canada M1000
6 - 17 Aug WSO M1000
17 - 23 Aug Winston Salem?
24 Aug - 7 Sept USO
So what happens to Atlanta, Washington DC and Los Cabos? (And Newport and Winston Salem for that matter). Are some of these smaller tournaments going to die? The European clay tournaments are probably facing a similar issue.
