Growing Interest In Pushing Wimbledon Back One Week On Calendar

Written by: Staff on 22nd October 2012

Growing Interest In Pushing Wimbledon Back One Week On Calendar

epa03311494 Photo dated 24 June 2011 shows a general view of the All England Lawn Tennis Club Wimbledon during third round action for the Wimbledon Championships in London, Britain. London will be host for the 2012 Olympic Games which will take place from 27 July to 12 August 2012 and the Paralympic Games from 29 August to 09 September 2012. EPA/KERIM OKTEN |

The competitive calendar for upcoming years will be a subject for much debate as the respective boards of the WTA and ATP World Tour convene in upcoming weeks at their two end of season grand finales and the All England Club’s chief executive Richard Lewis has once again reiterated his demand for Wimbledon to be put back a week, so giving a greater time for grass court preparation after the French Open.

Lewis’s argument is not a new one but there is now a mood in tennis where common sense is beginning to prevail and the turnaround between the summit of clay in the finals at Roland Garros and then the pinnacle of grass in London SW19 beginning just a fortnight later has long been seen as ridiculous.

“Only having two weeks between Paris and Wimbledon is recognized by most people to be too short,” maintained Lewis who succeeded Ian Ritchie at the All England Club’s chief executive in April. “Having an extra week allows the players more rest and recuperation.

“It allows more buildup, publicity and profile building for the Championships. Having three weeks between grand slams, basically a 50% increase in grass-court play, is a very good thing for the public who will be able to see more grass court tennis.”

Lewis’s views are shared by the majority of the leading players; Novak Djokovic being the most voluble. An extra week of grass court preparation would given them more time to reacquaint themselves to the vagaries of the surface and make the transition from traditionally the slowest conditions on Parisian clay to the fastest on Wimbledon grass.

“Crucially, it allows more practice time on grass and more grass-court tournaments,” said Lewis, a former British Davis Cup player and Director of Tennis at the Lawn Tennis Association.

“The jump from clay to grass is the biggest leap of all, so having a longer lead-in period to Wimbledon makes sense. Also, the players love playing on grass, so they’re quite happy there’s more grass-court tennis.”

©Daily Tennis News Wire

Topics: Atp, Sports, Tennis Lawn Association, Tennis News, Wimbledon Champions, Wta