Respected pundit says moving dates for French Open and Wimbledon would help tennis

Kevin Palmer
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A general view of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon
A general view of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon

Tennis could be set for big changes in the next few years, with Saudi Arabian sports chiefs offering to transform the sport with huge cash investment and there are also proposals for an alternative new tennis tour being proposed by the organisers of the Grand Slam tournaments.

Reports suggest the Saudi offer that has been presented to the ATP Tour is worth $1billion and would be in an additional Masters 1000 event added to the calendar in Riyhad.

Elite players would focus on playing these events, which will all be men’s and women’s joint tournaments and would feature equal prize money for all players.

Meanwhile, the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open tournament chiefs have acted to protect status in the sport and have drawn up an alternative proposal that would also change the tennis eco-system that has been in place for decades.

They are proposing a Premier Tour that would consist of just 14 core events, including the four Grand Slams and a team event that could replace the traditional Davis Cup and Billie Jean King Cups.

This plan could mean lower-ranking tournaments would be either demoted to meaningless events featuring no star names or cancelled altogether as it would be almost impossible to attract top tier sponsors.

What seems clear is that change is coming and in the opinion of respected coach and TV analyst Mark Petchey, a new dawn for tennis could be welcomed.

The sight of fans in northern Europe shivering in rainy conditions as they tried to watch this week’s clay court tournament in Munich has not made for a good spectacle.

Spectators in Barcelona have also had to wrap up to watch Rafael Nadal’s comeback event, with Petchey suggesting outdoor tournaments at this time of the year in Europe are not viable.

“People so worried about a Premier Tour but how about we take a mid-season break in April when it’s snowing in Europe, which isn’t ideal for tennis,” said Andy Murray’s former coach Petchey on X.

“Push the French back a month so they can get better weather and Wimbledon to August when everyone there is on holiday and the better weather is around.

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“Hypothermic fans and players aren’t a great look and the WTA wouldn’t have to have 2 indoor clay events.”

Petchey’s comments add to the hot topic of what comes next in tennis, with

Lew Sherr, the USTA’s chief executive officer and executive director, is emerging as a key figure in the Premier Tour plan and he offered these comments to Sports Illustrated.

“We think 10 is the appropriate number of Premier Tour events,” said Sherr.

“I can’t overstate the importance of all combined, all equal prize day one for the sport operating entity combined.

“And truly creating a gender-neutral sport is absolutely paramount for us and a critical sort of piece of this thing. We also think there is an opportunity for an international team event that would fit within this calendar; and then a year-end combined event.

“The other piece: we’re prescribing specific play-down weeks. So we know that competition matters. And if you’re a lower-ranked player, you may not be getting enough match play.

“If you lose early in a model like this, there may not be enough matches for you to be at your peak performance, so we’ve identified a series of weeks over the course of the year where you could drop down to get more match play, drop into what we think would be sort of the highest level of contender tour events.

“This is a massive reimagination of the way the sport is presented and change is hard.

“And we want to get it right and we’re taking our time and we’re working with stakeholders to make sure that we’re thinking through all of these questions that you’re asking and others are asking because that stuff is important. Ultimately it’s going to require change from within and that’s really hard, right?”

If adopted, Sherr suggested his plan could come into play for the start of the 2026 season, but there is always a danger that the Saudi bidders keen to be involved in tennis will start their own tour and sign up the game’s biggest stars to play for them if they are not welcomed into the tennis family.