ATP Releases 2015 Schedule, Finally There Are THREE Weeks Between French And Wimbledon

by Staff | February 10th, 2014, 11:33 pm
  • 28 Comments

The ATP released its 2015 schedule and the big reveal was an extra week of grass court tennis was added between the French Open and Wimbledon.

The third week which was first announced in July of 2012 is a much-welcomed change to the calendar.

“The extended grass-court season, with additional Emirates ATP Rankings points at stake, is a positive step forward,” said new ATP CEO Chris Kermode who use to run the Queen’s event. “One of our assets as a sport is to provide for variance across playing surfaces throughout the season, so the strengthening of the grass-court season is a significant enhancement for the overall calendar. In particular, I would like to thank the All England Club, led by Philip Brook, for the instrumental role it has played in achieving this positive outcome.”


Kermode’s former Queen’s event and Halle will now become a ATP 500 level tournaments starting next year. And Stuttgart will move from clay to grass, sliding the week before Queen’s with Holland. Nottingham, which had been a Challenger event, returns the week before Wimbledon.

Among other quirks for U.S. tennis fans, the Australian Open men’s final will be played the day of Super Bowl 49. The NFL will also collide with the US Open on both the middle and final weekends which includes the traditional Sunday men’s final to be aired on ESPN. And on a sobering note, the U.S. has just 11 events on the 2015 calendar, same as this year. In 1985 there were 23.


You Might Like:
Roger Federer Releases Clay-Reduced 2016 Schedule
Roger Federer Releases Schedule Through Wimbledon, Miami Isn’t On It
Novak Djokovic Releases His Early 2017 Schedule, He Has 4,340 Points To Defend The First 3 Months!
Novak Djokovic: I Feel Excited About The French Open, The Expectations Are Big!
Roger Federer Adds New ATP Event In Istanbul To His Clay Schedule

Don't miss any tennis action, stay connected with Tennis-X

Get the FREE TX daily newsletter

28 Comments for ATP Releases 2015 Schedule, Finally There Are THREE Weeks Between French And Wimbledon

Bad Knee Rules Says:

They got it wrong. They were supposed to extend the clay court season and add a few more tournaments on clay at the expense of hard court season. No?


skeezer Says:

^”They” was a vamosheads rationale, ROTF! Vamoose!


Margot Says:

Brilliant news for Andy fans! About time :) Queens will get a lot more attention too. It’s a lovely, intimate, little tournament.
You have to ignore the Hurray Henrys quaffing their champagne in the hospitality tents of course, but easy to do.


Giles Says:

Hey skeezer. You seem to spend all your time ROTFL. Do you have time to indulge in other activities? BTW rolling is good!


Hippy Chic Says:

(Sigh)It would be nice for a change to have a thread that doesnt end up in a food fight,all getting rather childish now,please lets have some proper tennis talk,i agree with Margot the grass court season is wonderful maybe with an extra week between the French and Wimbledon hopefully Queens and Halle will attract more of the bigger names,especially players like Andy and Roger whos games are better suited to grass than Rafa and Novak,and possibly their best chances of adding more GS to their tallys.


Alexandra Says:

It was about time to add that extra week. Wonder why they couldn’t come up with that much earlier. It’s also nice to see that Queens and Halle have achieved the 500 status. Both great events for a number of years now.


RZ Says:

Hallelujah, it’s about time!


RZ Says:

I’d still like to see on of the grass court events become a Masters 1000, but they’d probably need yet another additional week between the French and Wimbledon for that to happen. Plus it would lead to debating whether it should be Queens or Halle.


courbon Says:

@ RZ: That’s exactly what I said!I guess they would have to do Halle, because GB already has Wimbledon.And you are right, it should be another week.


Perfect fan Says:

This ain’t enough :(

A ATP 1000 EVENT on GRASS is a must which will bring more balance to the year round grind. And mind u, I m not saying this coz’ fed will get benefitted….coz’ by the time it will get implemented, fed will be watching this event on his tv set sitting on his couch n munching popcorn. But the atp tour definitely will be benefitted with more breathing time between RG & WIMBY.


SG1 Says:

It seems like Wimbledon execs have allowed the final to move from first week of July to the 2nd week. Hats off to them. It’s often difficult to get this kind of flexibility from tradition based institutions.

The crazies that run the Master’s Golf tournament don’t even allow the commentators to use the word “fans” in reference to the crowds which is pathetic. I don’t think they’d have allowed their tournament to shift dates. Even if it was better for the sport.

Does moving out the Wimbledon final date shorten the US hard court season by a week? I think this would be welcome as I think the US hard court season is too long. And why shouldn’t grass get more tune ups anyway? It’s a GS surface and I think more tournaments should be played on it.


Daniel Says:

Does anyone know if Nadal is confirmed to come to Rio next week fro Rio Open?!
The tickets are sky high for QF onwards (more than U$ 600 for final).
I hope he doesn’t come so the tickets may drop:) Saw him play live in RG already.


Brando Says:

@Daniel:

He said he will play.

I hope ticket prices rise to a extortionate level to hurt a Fed fan like you! p

LOL, just messing. He said he will play and i’m not surprised to see that ticket prices are rising for such an event.


RZ Says:

@Courbon, Halle would make more sense for the reason that you state. If they had one more week in the grasscourt season, then Queens and Halle could be on different weeks allowing Queens to keep its world class (but not Masters 1000) status.


skeezer Says:

@Perfect fan

Baby steps. It is a big step in the right direction. You can feel the shift happening. As SG1 so astutely observed, there pushing Wimby Final to another week. The HC season can afford to be shortened a little. So can the Clay imo.
I would like to think if this bodes well for the tour and the players a 1000 ATP Grass event is not too far behind.


courbon Says:

RZ: I agree . For me,Queens is very nice tournament.I use to live about 5 min from Barons Court ( where is Queens ) and I had a chance to visit it and see atmosphere.It’s like real gentelmens private club, very traditional and it’s just different then others tournaments-not maybe better but different and I like that.But it would be more fair to give to Halle… I guess we have to see if something like that ever happen.Maybe grass never gets Master 1000.


courbon Says:

@ skeezer: You are right.


volley Says:

controversy! during the tursunov/dimitrov match dimitry got a time violation which for some strange reason causes him to launch into a tirade against rafa –

“Rafa picks his ass for 30 seconds and you guys sit and watch.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLQjNo8cqEA#t=56

dima, watch out the next time you’re in the players canteen with nadal.


Brando Says:

LMFAO Dmitry!

He’s got a point. The rules are there, Rafa does at times pass the limit but hey:

it ain’t on him- it’s the UMPIRES.

If they have not got the cojona’s to confront Rafa then it’s on them.


Giles Says:

Booooo Tursumov. Glad he lost!! Too many cry babies on the circuit these days!


Adam Says:

Hey, Courbon. Fascinating.
Until April 2013 I used to live 5 minutes walk away from Queen’s on Castletown Road. Right next to West Kensington Tube.
I paid £10 to watch the 2011 final on a Monday when Muzza beat Jo Wilfred.
Only cost £10 as the final got rained off on the Sunday. Expensive area to live though great for the Olympics.


Perfect fan Says:

@ skeeze,

Yeah, I do understand that and I m rly optimistic about the inclusion of a 1000 event on Grass in near future. I m a big fan of ‘serve n volley’ style of tennis and its an absolute visual-delight to behold.

Hope, it unveils before I breath my last :(


courbon Says:

@ Adam: Small world isn’it? I lived in North End Road, also next to Tube ( above Red Wine Shop and Best mangal-best kebab in West London,, that is on the corner about 50m from tube ), but that was between 1994-1997 when was still affordable.
I don’t remember the prices,but definitely not too much.


roy Says:

‘‘serve n volley’ style of tennis and its an absolute visual-delight to behold.’

Yeah, watching highlights.
Watching a whole match where practically every point ends in a few seconds with the same put-aways is not so delightful.

Modern game has all the shots. Far less predictable despite the criticism. Women’s game might possibly suck more now, but the men’s game has highly varied rallies with enough net.

Serve and volley seems novel now, but when it’s the same difference the whole time and the style has less variety overall …
Rushing net off every serve and endless chip-charge is far more robotic.

Extra time between RG and Wimby is good for Nadal.


Hippy Chic Says:

Coubon/Adam i dont know London,but my husband lived in Tottenham,right near the ground,when he was younger before we got together,did either of you live anywhere near there ever?


Daniel Says:

Thanks Brando,

I still didn’t get a confirmation anywhere, today is Wednesday and he is probably playing in a week time, so he better fly during weekend. In a few days he will confirm if he plays or not. I think not, because it would make sense to play BA and Rio back to back. But now that he skipped BA, I don’t see much sense of coming down to South America, unless they are paying him too much or he wants to visit / rest in Rio. Because if he comes to play, it will be just show practice until the final, maybe if he gets Almagro or Ferrer to push him for a few games and that’s it.


Perfect fan Says:

@ Roy, thanx for sharing ur valuable insights….i rly appreciate.

I said earlier that I m a big fan of ‘serve n volley’ style….which clearly doesn’t mean that other styles r no good. Everyone is entitled to have thr own fav player, fav shot, fav surface, etc. But by doing that they never mean that all other players or all other styles of play are the worst. Its kiddish mentality, isn’t it? I hav my picks n u hav urs….jus lik ur fav is rafa n mine is roger. Can’t it end here? I respect ur picks n u respect mine. If u like the baseline style, its cool with me….why shud I hav a problem with that? n why shud I try to justify that my style is better coz urs is boring, monotonous..whr each player is trying just to outbreath each other n win the point rather winning it by pure skill. See….the point is simple. If we will be hell bent upon proving others thoughts to be wrong….its just like spitting to the sky, ain’t it?

So with all due respect Roy….please keep loving n supporting ur favs, ur thoughts n always stand by them….be it success or failure. But most importantly, respect other’s thoughts too.

I know u r going to hit back on this….but I won’t reply. I think, I hav made my point. Thanx bro….i still hav lotsa respect for u.


skeezer Says:

What is more interestin;
Watching someone take forever to get ready for a point by pickin there a$$, turning water bottles, etc. …….or s&v?

No brainer. One puts me to sleep the other produces action.

Top story: Sinner Swallows Up Zverev For Second Straight Australian Open, 3rd Slam