Birmingham have to have their arms twisted to hold the 1 event there, can't see them holding a 2nd without an awful lot of extra (and financial) arm-twisting. Apparently nobody else wants the current WTA event, so B'ham continue to have it by default. 

It was part of the LTA bribery building the new court and doing the upgrade that kept it on the last year or 2.

(This from a Priory member a couple of years ago - it's possible that things have changed, ie the indoor courts now being in general use and being used by the LTA for a couple of ITF events may give the club more leeway and cause less disruption to club members.)

indiana wrote:

---

Yes, will be great if Queens and Halle are upgraded to 500s. I thought that they already should be.

Madeline getting greedy now ( and I am not sure how serious ) LOL. There won't be a grass masters event anytime remotely soon, even with the one week extension to the season.

---

 I agree the current players are already moaning about the season being too long and with the Indian premier league starting next November i am certain one of the current masters events would have to switch to grass or scrapped to make a way for this  and that will almost certainly cause disagrement amongst some player and I suspect Nadal would not like his beloved Clay Court season shortened if they could get by this then Upgrading Hamburg back to a 1000 again would be the sensible option

Well, last week I was pondering about what it would take for China to host a Grand Slam. I thought that it couldn't happen overnight, but as their economy keeps expanding, they can afford to -

a) Give more money at Shanghai than the prize money given at the Australian Open. 

b) Eat up every single tournament in the "Asian swing", till we have a "Chinese swing" instead. I can also see them getting a pre-Australian Open tournament in the next few years... 

Fun fact: winning the warm up event at Beijing (an ATP 500) gives a player not only more money than what he can get by winning any other 500/250, but also more than what he can get by winning the Monte Carlo Masters (ATP 1000), or the Rome Masters (ATP 1000), or the Paris Masters (ATP 100).


Anyway, the Chinese are probably thinking along the same lines, because the tournament that used to be held in Bangkok has been relocated to Shenzhen. 


From not having a single top tournament in 1995, they've gone on to become one of only a handful of countries that have a demand for 3 or more tournaments (off the top of my head - the USA, Britain, Germany, France, Spain, China and Australia). I get the feeling that unless the Chinese economy has a spectacular collapse in the next decade or so, either the Australian Open will be rebranded as the "Asia-Pacific Slam", that'll alternate between China and Australia, or else China will get a Fifth Slam.

Robin wrote:

---

Can't see the alternating idea happening with all the history of the Australian Open but yes, an additional Grand Slam in China is definitely within the realms of possibility and would be good for tennis.

---

 A 5th slam is interesting but its so hard to take events away from other coutries (its 2 weeks out the calendar).  There's too much clay imo.  US has too many masters.  I am sure the players would rather have 16 mandatory events rather then the current 18.  It'll be interesting to see if the new CEO can make any real changes.