More Grass Please
Almost 50 years ago, the U.S. Open and Australian Open were played on grass courts. At that time, three out of the four Grand Slams were played on grass with the French Open being the only exception. Backtracking even farther into tennis history, you will find that before we had the ATP, WTA or USTA organizations, there was only one governing body of tennis, the LTA or Lawn Tennis Association.
Tennis first began as a sport that was almost exclusively played on grass courts. Years later, when clay courts became more popular, tennis became a two-surface sport at the professional level. Closer to 50 years ago when tennis began to grow in popularity, hard courts started popping up in North America and Asia, and professional tennis became a three-surface sport. When the U.S. Open and Australian Open both changed to hard court tournaments, we started to see a growing interest in hard court tennis which unfortunately led to a decrease in grass court tennis. With the exception of Wimbledon and a few smaller events, the grass court season has shrunk to a mere seven weeks.
In recent years, especially in women’s tennis, we have seen a severe drop off in the net-rushing style of play that had dominated for so long. In the 1980s and 1990s, both men’s and women’s tennis still featured a variety of playing styles due to the balance in the amount of tournaments on different court surfaces. Players who adopted a net rushing style could sustain their professional rankings by dominating the grass court seasons, while players with a defensive backcourt style could dominate during the clay court season. The variety in different style matchups also provided for very entertaining matches, think Agassi vs. Sampras. Currently, the grass court season isn’t worth as many points to professional players because of the smaller number of tournaments. For this very reason, some professionals even choose to skip the smaller warm-up events on grass and use it as a chance to get a jump-start preparing for the much longer and more valuable hard court season.
The variety in playing styles has to make a return to our sport. It kept the major events more exciting and enabled players to showcase their distinct skill sets and tactics. Currently, the grass court season is significantly shorter than both the hard court and clay court seasons, and this has to be changed for the betterment of the sport. Part of the challenge in expanding the grass court season is scheduling. The clay court season concludes after the French Open is over, and immediately, the grass court season begins leading up to Wimbledon. The current schedule however, presents a very difficult problem for players who are forced to switch from the slowest surface in tennis to the fastest in a very short period of time. This issue can be corrected by shortening both the hard court and clay court seasons by a few weeks and playing the French Open in the beginning of April, instead of at the end of May. This would allow for a longer outdoor grass court season which could now start mid-April and continue into early July.
Something needs to be done in order to continue to grow and develop our sport. If we make these adjustments at the professional level, we can expect it to trickle down throughout the rest of the sport. With the addition of more grass court tournaments, we will also see an increase in grass court clubs and facilities, which will provide an opportunity for people to experience the sport on all of the surfaces. Ultimately, the more surfaces that a player becomes familiar with, the more skills they will acquire and develop when they playing. I hope that we see a change in tournament scheduling that allows for a longer grass court season, and in turn, a more balanced and diversified sport that we can all enjoy.
