ATP Chairman Andrea Gaudenzi confirms there is a possibility of introducing a grass Masters event in the near future. A tennis season features nine Masters tournaments but none of those nine are played on grass. Six Masters events are staged on hard, while there are three clay Masters tournaments.
Also, a tennis season features 13 tournaments from the ATP 500 category. Two ATP 500 tournaments take place during the grass season – Queen’s and Halle. If the ATP does decide to introduce a grass Masters, it will likely be Queen’s and Halle getting a promotion to the Masters level.
“There are three weeks between the French Open and Wimbledon,” Gaudenzi told TennisMagazin.de. “Grass is the only surface on which a Masters 1000 tournament is not played. This means that between Rome and the Canada Masters in the summer, the ATP will have no premium content for the fans for (more than) two months.
Because almost all players start in the middle of the three grass weeks before Wimbledon, a grass Masters makes sense”.
Gaudenzi reveals the ATP might introduce a grass Masters
Both Halle and Queen’s have a strong reputation and traditionally feature star-studded player fields.
Should Queen’s get a Masters 1000 licence, London would become the second city in tennis that hosts both a Grand Slam and a Masters. Paris hosts the French Open and Paris Masters. “The Germans love tennis and its history,” Gaudenzi continued.
“It’s the same with the UK market. It has the same chance as Germany of a grass Masters. It offers the advantage that the players are already in London before Wimbledon. But, London already has Wimbledon. Our plan is that there will be 10 ATP Masters 1000 tournaments in the future”.
Nick Kyrgios, who finished runner-up at this year’s Wimbledon, said several times in the past that tennis absolutely needs a grass Masters event. It remains to be seen if the ATP decides to add a Masters event from 2023 onward.
