Kyle Edmund has given his verdict on whether a grass court Masters 1000 tournament should be introduced to the tennis calendar.
Players including Tommy Paul have called for a grass Masters event in the future, with it being the only surface without a tournament at this level.
There are currently nine ATP 1000 tournaments, with Saudi Arabia also set to host a Masters tournament in 2028.
Edmund, who retired from professional tennis last year, has now revealed if he thinks there should be a grass court Masters 1000 tournament in the future.
Kyle Edmund explains why there could be difficulties in having a grass Masters 1000 event
Edmund stated that he is fully in support of there being a Masters 1000 tournament on grass, particularly stating his hopes for it to be hosted in the United Kingdom.
However, the former Australian Open semi-finalist admitted the difficulties that the ATP Tour could face with the pending introduction of the Saudi Arabian Masters event, as well as the issues a venue like Queen’s could face if it was awarded a 1000 tournament.
Now that the draw is out, which British player do you think will do the best at Wimbledon?
“You’re certainly not the only people to think about it, because I’ve thought about it and spoke to the LTA about it,” said Edmund.
“I don’t know if you saw, but I just started an MBA (Master of Business Administration) with the ATP as well and Pablo Andujar is as well, and obviously he’s with the ATP, so I talked to him about it as well, not officially just kind of sounding it out.
“But I would love to see a grass court Masters and selfishly I’d like to see it in the UK, especially with Wimbledon being in the UK as well and it feels like grass court tennis is in the UK, so I would definitely love to see that happen.
“It’s just that when you talk to certain people about it, it feels like there’s a lot of hurdles in the way to get through it and now there’s an addition of Saudi with the Masters, they’re not going to probably add another Masters, so a tournament is going to have to drop off or the license is going to have to change to go over. So how does that work?
“Having a Masters at Queen’s, I think would be amazing. I don’t know logistically, I think there’s some concerns about having a women’s and a men’s Masters at Queen’s, because Queen’s can’t expand, obviously you just can’t go anywhere with the location building.”
What Andy Roddick once said about there being no Masters 1000 tournament on grass
The debate surrounding grass court Masters 1000 tournaments has been going on for some time and was also discussed on former world number one Andy Roddick’s podcast last year.
In the assessment of this, American tennis journalist Jon Wertheim highlighted the lack of viable venues that have grass courts.
“People always say why don’t we have more Masters 1000s on grass,” Wertheim said in April last year.
“There are a finite number of venues, Wimbledon being one of them that can give you the practice courts, the locker-room facilities, the parking, the hospitality, there’s not a lot of grass venues that could live up to these prerequisites that you [need] to have a Masters.”
Who is your pick for the Wimbledon Men’s Singles title? 🏆
Predict your champion now!
Roddick also weighed into the conversation, as he also spoke about how delicate of a surface grass is compared to hard and clay courts.
“The other thing about having a Masters on grass, yes I wanted that forever. It should be the case,” said Roddick. “The courts at the end of Wimbledon are trashed, the wear and tear of them, you can’t practice on them as a seeded player.
“Roger Federer, the time he was going for his sixth win, could practice exactly 45 minutes a day on the outer courts of Wimbledon. You don’t get on stadium like you do at the other [Slams], it’s untenable on grass.”
The discussion surrounding grass court Masters tournaments is set to continue, but for the time being it seems that 1000 level events will stick to hard and clay.
