After years of lobbying the grass season will finally come into its own in 2015, with a six-week ATP season to be played on the lawns. The men will get a true run-up to Wimbledon, with three weeks now separating the end of the French Open and the start of Wimbledon. Those weeks, plus the grand slam fortnight and the Newport event in the US will stretch the season to a respectable length.
Filling the space will be tournaments in Germany, the Netherlands and Britain, with the west London date at Queen’s Club and Halle in Germany getting upgrades in points and prize money to 500-level events.
The 2015 grass season will start June 8, 2015, the day after the French Open final in s’Hertogenbosch and Stuttgart which is already converting from clay. The second week will feature the Queen’s and Halle events while the week before Wimbledon will host men’s ATP competition shifted from Eastbourne to Nottingham in England plus women at Eastbourne, their third week of play on grass.
The 2015 ATP calendar will feature 62 tournaments in 31 countries across six continents. “The ATP World Tour is a truly global sports property, and demand for tournaments around the world is high, which reflects the strength of our product and the growing popularity of our sport,” said ATP boss Chris Kermode, who formerly ran Queen’s and the year-end championships in London.
“The extended grass-court season, with additional rankings points at stake, is a positive step forward. “One of our assets as a sport is to provide for variance across playing surfaces throughout the season, so the strengthening of the grass-court season is a significant enhancement for the overall calendar.”
China continues to grow in marketing stature, with the country now hosting ATP event at all three Tour levels – 250, 500 and Masters 1000, comprising Shenzhen, Beijing and Shanghai. The new Rio event being played for the first time this month, begins a new four-week South American swing.
Despite continual complaints of a crowded schedule, the ATP will shoehorn in another clay tournament into a busy May week, adding an as-yet-unknown venue to the week already occupied by Oeiras, Portugal and Munich.
10sballs.com
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