Wimbledon organizers say the Grand Slam tournament will be pushed back one week in 2015 to lengthen the grass-court season.
The All England Club said in a statement Thursday that the change will “benefit the sport as a whole by creating a three-week gap between the French Open and Wimbledon,” giving players more time to play on grass and recover from Roland Garros.
Wait-a-minute! They didn’t ask us tennis fans who have a hard time waiting for the next Grand Slam tournament to come along. And what will we do in America for the 4th-of July weekend if we can’t watch Wimbledon? That has become a tradition.
Well, like it or not, in 2015, the tournament will run from June 29 to July 12.
All England Club chairman Philip Brook says “all our research indicates that there is widespread support within the game for extending the gap between the French Open and Wimbledon and, importantly, we think most players will welcome the prospect of a longer grass court season and spending more time on the softer surface of grass.”
So, if it will benefit the players, I guess we fans can survive. I suppose in a few decades, we will get used to it, and we will forget we used to watch Wimbledon a week earlier. And it will shorten the gap between Wimbledon and the U.S. Open. That is a plus!
However, it will have to push some other tournaments back as well, for example, the WTA Tour Bank of the West Classic in Stanford, California, and the WTA Tour Internazionali Femminili di Palermo in Palermo, Italy, both of which started the day after Wimbledon this year. And what about the entire series that runs right up to the US Open begins? There are two tournaments scheduled to end the day before the US Open this year. Does that mean some tournaments will be canceled, or will the US Open have to be pushed back as well? Did anyone think about all those thing. Huh?
