Changes to Dates of Wimbledon

neemish

"The All England Club today confirmed that, following extensive consultation across the tennis and wider sporting world, The Championships’ dates will be moved back by one week with effect from 2015.The change of dates will benefit the sport as a whole by creating a three week gap between the French Open and Wimbledon, a move which will allow the players a longer grass court season in the build-up to The Championships, and precious additional time to recover from the demands of playing Roland Garros and to prepare for Wimbledon.
Announcing the decision, Philip Brook, Chairman of the All England Club, said: “The best interests of tennis will be served by allowing the players more time to recuperate and to adjust from the clay of Roland Garros to the grass at Wimbledon. 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.
“In making this change from 2015 we recognise that there will be some important consequences for the overall tennis calendar and enough time needs to be given to allow us all to plan accordingly. In anticipation of the work required, I would like to thank our colleagues throughout the game for their enthusiasm and support for the vision of a tennis calendar that will better suit the needs of the modern day sport.”
Wimbledon 2015 will run from Monday 29 June to Sunday 12 July."




Thoughts on this? It makes a lot of sense in terms of the grass court season. And who knows - there might be less rain!

RosyLily

Good idea imo. Gives the players more time to become accustom to the grass and it might lessen the risk of injury if players decide to take the extra week off.

Queen's might get bigger names as well.

It might become a pain in the arse during Olympic years. Players roughly get about 2 weeks break between Wimbledon & Olympics, if the Games start the end of July. But they only come around every 4 years so the positives out-weigh the negatives.

gaelicred

About time the players need the extra time inbetween majors

Stevecw

Good idea, both for fact that players need a bigger turnaround between switch from clay to grass, and the extra week will help rest...and weather is usually better later in summer.