Key grass-court change that could help Wimbledon suggested by Marcos Baghdatis
Marcos Baghdatis has revealed he would like to see a change to the grass-court season that could help players at Wimbledon as he spoke to Tennis365.
Grass is tennis’ original surface, and the hallowed lawns of Wimbledon’s All England Club have always been synonymous with the sport.
The US Open and Australian Open also used to be played on grass, but now, grass-court tennis only makes up a fraction of the calendar.
The grass season at ATP and WTA main tour level lasts around a month, starting the week after Roland Garros and concluding at the end of Wimbledon.
There are also no ATP or WTA 1000 tournaments — the highest level of events after the four majors — played on grass.
In an exclusive interview, Tennis365 asked Baghdatis — who was a Wimbledon fan favourite — if he thinks the grass-court season should be longer.
“Me personally, yes, I would love to [see more grass-court tennis]… but that’s another story,” said Baghdatis, a former world No 8.
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“Yeah, I think it’s tough for the players to get results on the grass or get used to the grass.
“And what I don’t like is when I see guys that, I give an example, like Casper Ruud says, ‘I’m not gonna play Wimbledon [in 2025] because it’s too short to go on grass, so I skip grass because it’s three weeks, and basically I lose my time playing three weeks on grass.’
“And that’s what you don’t want to see. So yeah, the reason I think there should be more grass-court tournaments is because it gives you more time to prepare and play more time on grass so you can play one of the most historical tournaments in the world, of our sport, which is Wimbledon.”
Speaking to Tennis365 at the Queen’s Club Championships last month, American ATP star Tommy Paul called for a longer grass season and a Masters event on the surface.
“Yeah, absolutely. We talk about that all the time. I think so, for sure. That would be great,” said Paul.
“I mean, it’s the only surface that we don’t have a Masters 1000 on.
“It is tough, obviously with the schedule. We complain about too many tournaments, but then here I am asking for a Masters 1000 on grass.
“But I don’t see why we don’t. I think it [grass court tennis] is kind of how the tennis started. It’s the tradition in tennis.
“I think that we should have every level of tournament on the surface.”
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