Halle and London Queen’s Both mainstays of the ATP World Tour on grass begin their main draw action on Monday, with marquee fields as Halle boasts three top 10, and five top 20 players, including Roger Federer and Kei Nishikori, while Queen’s club has five top 10 players, and the seed cutoff is top 15. It features the likes of Andy Murray, Stan Wawrinka, and Rafael Nadal.
These tournaments, previously part of the ATP 250 series, the lowest level of the main tour in terms of points, were boosted this year to 500 series events, which is the second tier on the ATP tour. This was a deserved boost after years of top champions and players participating in these tournaments, and consistently they have brought in large crowds to cheer on their favorite national and international tennis stars.
In addition to the extra 500 ranking points added in total, with the boost in level for Queen’s Club and Halle, Stuttgart, which took place last week and featured Nadal, and Marin Cilic as the top seeds, along with Gael Monfils and other notables, switched from clay to grass this year, while remaining a 250 series event. The switch brought in seemingly larger crowds, and certainly a stronger field than in previous years, as ATP players were hungry to get extra matches in before Wimbledon in two weeks time.
The ATP is making progress in returning grass to the status in tennis, and the place on the tennis calendar it deserves, and credit to them ,but simply put, 500 is not enough, as a Masters 1000 event on grass is sorely needed to help make the game we love even better.
Even with the ranking points alterations I mentioned above fewer than 20% of the ATP’s total points for the year are up for grabs on grass, and even though tennis is considered a three and a half surface sport (hard courts/indoor hard, clay, and grass), the scales are certainly tilted towards hard courts and clay, which are the primary surfaces most of the rank and file ATP pros make their living on.
This is partially why we haven’t seen a strong push for a grass masters from players. Simply put the current crop of pros don’t have a lot of incentive to want to take points away from either clay or hard courts, and give them to grass, and that’s understandable, but it’s not good for the game as a whole. It’s worth keeping in mind the ATP is at least partially run by the players, so they do have a say in the makeup of the calendar, and other matters year in and year out.
Grass, specifically the legendary and prestigious Wimbledon Grand Slam tournament, has been a surface where legendary moments in tennis have taken place, not just decades prior when both Wimbledon, and the classic US Open were played on the surface, but in the past decade, as the current big four of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray, and current world #1 Novak Djokovic have all won Wimbledon titles, and a host of other popular players of years gone by including former American #1 Andy Roddick, and former Australian #1 Lleyton Hewitt have also had great success and moments at Wimbledon.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQPa5YbPrSs
Thus, the importance of the surface is already well established, and it’s ability to create high quality tennis, and big drama is well-known, whether it’s teenager Nick Kyrgios saving 9 match points in a five set win against Richard Gasquet last year, the epic Wimbledon clashes in recent memory between Federer and Nadal, or massive upsets including Steve Darcis over Nadal, Sergiy Stakhovsky over Federer and George Bastl over the legendary Pete Sampras back in 2002.
It’s safe to say that there are hardly any legends of men’s tennis who don’t have a memorable moment on grass, dating back to the beginnings of the Open era. That said, we have seen the development of the game move away from fast surfaces and a new crop of players are being groomed to play baseline tennis on slow, medium to high bounce hard courts, and slow red clay courts. There isn’t any harm in that, but the slam-bang, anything can happen excitement of tennis has slipped, and it will continue to slip if their simply isn’t an incentive for a pro player to develop a top class game built for fast surfaces, the type of game that Federer and Sampras among others showed off in their primes. If more points were fairly allocated to grass, it would change in some cases how players are developed for pro success, in the here and now. It would also return the game to its roots, as tennis was born on grass.
Grass court specialists like Nicolas Mahut, who reached the final in Den Bosch this week, are simply not as highly ranked or appreciated as clay court specialists like Leonardo Mayer for example, and it’s not a surface you can play on year around. Seeing young guns like Dominic Thiem and Borna Coric play so poorly on grass this past week was highly concerning to say the least, and it’s a sign of things to come if you ask me, as an aggressive player like Nick Kyrgios seems to be an aberration, while players like Thiem are more the trend.
Presently the Masters series is split 5-3-1, with 5 tournaments on outdoor hard, three on clay, and 1 on indoor hard, formerly the fast surface of carpet before they did away with that after the 2008 season. This tracks with the fact there are two outdoor hard court slams (AO, USO), and just one each on grass and clay. That said, if indoor hard, which doesn’t have a slam attached to it, can get a Masters, grass should as well. It’s understandable that grass has fewer tournaments as a whole at the ATP level, there are fewer courts overall suitable for a pro tournament that are grass, it’s expensive to maintain, and it wears down quickly, thus it’s the poshest surface, and the glory days of grass are never coming back, but a simple change to Masters won’t change much of anything in regards to those concerns of maintenance and costs.
The ATP, unlike the WTA to some extent, has shied away from putting Masters close to slams, but it’s clear that many ATP players take part in the 250 events prior to slams to get a chance to tune-up, as Doha/Brisbane, Winston-Salem, and the aforementioned Halle/Queens, which were formerly 250s, always tend to be some of, if not, the strongest ATP 250 level tournaments. Thus, like Monte Carlo, you wouldn’t need to make a new grass Masters one of the mandatory Masters at all, as no matter, a combined Halle/Queens field from this week and years past would be as strong as most of the Masters tournaments.
Doing so would give fans another notable marquee event on the calendar, promoting tennis before Wimbledon as a tie-in for the tour and broadcasters, allow players a chance to convene at a central location, and practice and get matches in before the slam, and create an overall quality marketing opportunity for the tour, as the Masters are the ATP’s crown jewels.
Grass generally makes for not only highlight worthy tennis, but also quicker matches on the ATP side, which is a boon for tv viewers who don’t have hours upon hours to put in to watching tennis, this should result in higher ratings. Another thing that should boost ratings is how many competitive matches tend to take place on grass compared to other surfaces, as mentioned, the current big 4 have all won Wimbledon titles, and the ATP likes their stars excelling, and the occasional thrilling upset that turns heads and turns viewers in, like we’ve seen at Wimbledon.
The venue at either Halle or Queen’s is already suitable, presuming they made some expansions, and personally I’d suggest either Halle or Stuttgart getting the designation since the UK already has the World Tour Finals, and Wimbledon, and Germany has been desiring a return to Masters status since Hamburg lost it a few years ago. These events are well run and funded, already have sponsors and tv deals, and already have managed to attract many of the worlds best players, who have yet to complain about the surface, the venue, or anything else notable.
Creating a marquee grass masters event would create extra ranking points opportunities for entertaining, and often fan-favorite players who are at their best on grass like Feliciano Lopez, Gilles Muller, Dustin Brown, and Mahut, and allow those who aren’t their best to get more practice in, including the young guns who in many cases could go through qualifying battle tested and improved. The rank and file of the tour would also find grass relatively suitable both in terms of their results, as it’s a balanced surface that allows room for upsets, and on their bodies, as grass is a less physically punishing surface than hard courts.
Complaints have been lodged for years that the increased focus on hard court tennis is wearing down players physically and mentally during the long ATP season, and we’ve seen injuries take their toll on players like Tommy Haas, Nadal and others who are top-class when healthy. This would be a welcome change that would benefit veterans, the players in the middle, and the next generation on the rise for a variety of reasons. Another positive will be making the game being more watchable, as more chances to improve the serve and volley game, and aggressive play will help players in general throughout the season and their careers.
Another debate can be held as to which Masters should be stripped for grass to take its place (Perhaps Miami, Shanghai or one of Cincy/Canada) but switching to a 4-3-1-1 system would be more balanced, and ensure a marquee ATP event on every grand slam surface, close to a slam. Presumably two weeks out is good timing to hold it, so either Queens or Halle should move forward a week and be put next to Nottingham (formerly ATP Eastbourne until this year) on the calendar, as the final tune-up before Wimbledon for players.
This has been a topic that I’ve seen discussed around the tennis community, and I’d say easily more than half of fans would like to see this change, so consider this piece an opening salvo on the discussion, and hopefully a fervor of fan support can help push the ATP to make this happen and create an ATP Masters 1000 on grass. Feel free to add your comments and thoughts to this discussion.
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