(Courtesy of ‘CNN Open Court’ )
7-time grand slam champion John McEnroe and 1991 Wimbledon winner Michael Stich talk to CNN’s monthly tennis programme ‘Open Court’ about Wimbledon being moved back one week in 2015, in an interview airing this week on CNN International.
The move means players will have extra time to prepare for Wimbledon, with an extra week between Roland Garros and Wimbledon. The players will be able to choose between several grass court warm up events, including the Mercedes Cup in Stuttgart, which will now be held on grass instead of clay, and be held in early June.
CNN’s ‘Open Court’ catches up with McEnroe and Stich in Stuttgart to get their views on the growing grass season and discuss which players will benefit from the change.
Of Rafael Nadal, McEnroe says: “All of the players especially if you look at Nadal -I don’t think he ever recovered from what he had to do to win the French -that extra week is going to make a difference for the quality of play.”
The programme also hears from Richard Lewis, CEO of Wimbledon, to hear how one goes about changing the dates of the biggest tournament in the world: “There were thousands of meetings, make that hundreds of meetings.”
You can also watch the full episode, when ‘Open Court’ airs tonight at 1730 BST on CNN International as well as during the weekend, on Saturday 19 July at 0830 BST and 2200 BST and Sunday 20 July at 1730 BST.
VIDEO: http://cnn.it/1neAi8K
Topics: CNN Open Court, CNN tennis news, John Mcenroe, Michael Stich, Open Court, Roland Garros, Sports, Tennis News, tennis schedule change, Wimbledon tennis news