Coup Droit wrote:

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So my partner came up with this solution for solving the tennis crisis:

The French Open is now practically on top of the US Open. And causing much angst. Wimbledon may well have to put back but can only be put off a few weeks at most, due to grass.

So why not have Wimbledon, the US Open and the French Open all at the same time - all the start of September?

There will then be no arguments about 'you're scuppering my tournament by putting yours so close' - the whole premise is they'll all play simultaneously and each player can chose which one to prioritise. 

No problem of having to change surface in two seconds flat - clay court players can prepare for clay, grass for grass and hard court players for hard court. 

Rafa can 'do his thang' at the French. Roger with his bad back can enjoy Wimbly. And Djoko can go and whack the fluff of the ball at the US. 

The viewers can all have an absolute tennis-fest of a lifetime. Non-stop tennis. Over two time zones. Just pig out of tennis.

TV will get to transmit and get their advertising. 

And - the best bit, maybe - it will mean that the main draw players will go  from 128 (coz it's pretty much the same 128 each time) to 384 because it'll have to be a different 128 for each Grand Slam. So, an extra 256 main draw players. 

Which will instantly solve the financial problems for a whole huge heap of players

(and the same argument goes for qualis, of course - another extra 256 players with far larger than normal pay-outs)

Plus all the doubles etc. 

There you go, sorted 

 

 

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 Possibly every player with a ranking point playing at one time ?! 

 

Wow! 

 

Nice idea, somehow me thinks too many interests ! 

I love this solution. A worldwide tennisfest!

Can we just hold the entire scheduled tour on one day? Every event, ATP/WTA/ITF/Slam for the calendar year played on one day at the same time?
I'm figuring that enough players would be engaged elsewhere that I might have a shot at a $15K title.

I like CD's partners idea! Very few of the top pros would play all three grand slams all on different surfaces in succession, so why not hold them at the same time? There could still be a few warm up tournaments for each on the respective surfaces, and I like the idea of 384 + 256 players all being able to benefit from grand slam paydays at the same time. It would certainly help to resolve the lack of earnings for lower ranked players especially this year.

This world is going to be even more unequal as we come out of this mess so I'm all for an idea that is more egalitarian in nature. Of course it is far TOO egalitarian for the powers that be... so we'll probably some kind of indecent haste near chaos instead.

Armchair, if it's any consolation, Eurosport have been showing highlights of matches. We watched the Nottingham final lastnight, and recording Birmingham right now.