What would be the most realistic schedule for an extended grass court season?

TimHenmanATG

Hall of Fame
The idea of a longer grass court season and a grass Masters appears to be popular on these forums, and amongst tennis fans in general.

The biggest obstacle to overcome is the scheduling.

The current grass schedule is sandwiched between the European clay court season and the North American hardcourt season.

A grass court Masters seemingly has to happen before Wimbledon, otherwise there'd be very much an''after the Lord Mayor's show'' vibe surrounding it. The tournament in Newport in the USA is completely inconsequential, for example. Not just because it's a 250, but because nobody is interested in grass court tennis after Wimbledon.

The only conceivable solutions appear to be to either push the French Open back to early May (and reschedule the clay Masters 2-3 weeks earlier) or push Wimbledon back to late July.

Wimbledon and the French Open are the two most historic and traditional Grand Slam tournaments, so changes to their scheduling will not generally be met welcomingly by their organisers.
 

Djokodalerer31

Hall of Fame
The problem with adding another masters is that you would have to get rid of existing one to replace it! Another problem is the calendar bid! If you followed by how one masters was replaced by another in the past, you would notice they always remained within the same calendar window! After Hamburg was eliminated as masters tournament, Madrid (current clay courts!) replaced it, while Madrid that was played on indoors hard courts got replaced by current Shanghai! But both of these events remained on the same week! It is very problematic and tricky to create new calendar windiw for entirely new masters event! The most realistic case scenario is to eliminate Mone-Carlo mastersin April, move each subsequent clay court tournament succeeding Monte-Carlo up one week! This will add an additional room for another week of grass courts events, while eliminate probably the least important masters tournament of the entire calendar! As for which tournament could assume the role of the masters! Well...that depends on the venue, but i would say Queens Club has the most obvious and realistic chances to be upgraded from ATP 500 into 1000, because of its historic background and importance! Ask anyone, any grass court champion of the past the next thing you would dream to win next to Wimbledon is Queens Club! So there is that!
 

ibbi

G.O.A.T.
I don't think Wimbledon should be pushed back any more as it just was a few years ago, and considering the post-Wimbledon period is the only significant break that certainly the top players get in the entire year, the idea of making that gap any smaller seems unfair.

I think you have to get rid of one of the other 1000's, and really one of the hard court ones should be the one to go given you want things to be as evenly balanced as possible. I feel like Miami should be the one considering it's currently in a state of flux, clearly cannot compete with Indian Wells, lacks the long history of Canada and Cincy, and is the closest to being in a perfect position to be axed.

Then I'd say move all the clay events from Monte Carlo to Roland Garros back in the calendar a week. This gives you 4 weeks between Roland Garros and Wimbledon. The podunk 250s can be in the first and fourth weeks, you can have your 500s in the third week, and your 1000 in the second week. The reason I'd have the 500s after the 1000 is because Queens is going to be one of the 500s (doesn't need upgrading to a 1000 when London has a slam a couple of weeks later) and expecting people to travel to London for a 500 then go somewhere else for a 1000 and then back to London for Wimbledon is idiotic. The 1000 should be in Halle, because Germany is a country with enough tennis history and pretty consistently strong caliber to deserve something more than a 500, plus Fed loves it there, they have a stadium court, and they're about to have the greatest mens player in the history of the sport of tennis.
 

PMChambers

Hall of Fame
Adding a Masters is probably very unrealistic as is converting Hale or Queens to ATP 1000.
If a Masters was required it would be best to have a 2 weeks gap after Wimbledon with a couple 250 in between to allow players keep their eye in.
There's no requirement to have it prior Wimbledon, though optimal its not a necessity.
There's no requirement to remove an existing Masters Given a new masters should be 96 player event with big $, players have been complaining about too many Tourneys. Just make a high $ value reduced Tourney calander and players should be pleased.
IW should be 128 player, currently 96 and increased to 2 weeks and 1200 or1500pts. Miami needs love, end of day if it can't support 96 player Tourney it should relocate within US to somewhere tennis friendly. Florida was once the retirement tennis loving area for many decades but maybe it's changed.
AO should be in late Feb. Something is needed before AO of reasonable value. It's not too bad but could be better.
I'm assuming the current age of Top 10 / 100 goes back to something more historic so the aging issue we currently see have less consideration.
 

itrium84

Hall of Fame
Advance Queens to m1000, downgrade Paris to 500, put YEC earlier in calendar, give players longer winter vacation. Everyone wins.

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