Wimbledon is already one of the most special sporting events, but it could perhaps be made even better.
This year’s tournament was no different, with Jannik Sinner beating Alexander Zverev to defend his Wimbledon title.
There was once again a new winner in the women’s singles tournament, as Linda Noskova became a Grand Slam champion for the first time.
The doors for Wimbledon have closed for another year, but it is actually something that has happened after the grass court major that has highlighted an improvement that tennis should make.
Clay court tournaments after Wimbledon need to be scrapped
Since the conclusion of Wimbledon, tennis has still been ongoing, but the top stars have been absent, as is often the case after the conclusion of a Grand Slam tournament.
For top players, the attention is now being shifted to the US Open hard court season, but on both the ATP and WTA Tours there are clay court events.
This has seen Stefanos Tsitsipas win the Swiss Open, his first title in 16 months, as well as Paula Badosa being forced to retire from her final in Iasi.
With the grass court season now over, it simply makes no sense for there to be clay court tournaments ahead of the US Open hard court season.
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Instead, it would perhaps be beneficial to move Wimbledon back a couple of weeks and extend the grass court season.
This would provide more build-up and excitement ahead of Wimbledon, with there currently only three weeks of grass court tournaments before The Championships.
While this would be beneficial for the grass court season, it is also important for these clay court tournaments to have their place in the calendar, but just at a more appropriate time.
A grass court Masters 1000 tournament should be introduced
If the grass court season was made longer as suggested, it would be the perfect opportunity to introduce a Masters 1000 tournament on the surface.
There have been a lot of calls for a grass Masters event to be introduced, as it being the only surface that does not currently have one.
If the grass court season was elongated to five weeks then it would enable that to be a more likely possibility.
Where this would be hosted is another conversation, with Queen’s, Berlin and Halle all potential possibilities to be upgraded.
There is also the new grass court in Milan expected to join the ATP calendar in 2028, with this also a potential venue for both tours to look into the future.
What is clear is that the current calendar needs looking at, particularly as this frequent switching of surfaces could also be contributing to the current injury crisis that tennis has.
