[Drango]

Monte Carlo Rolex Masters has been around for ages and is a great event with beautiful scenery. However, because it's a non-mandatory event and is right after IW/Miami with short preparation time, its entry list is always weaker than all the other M1000s - and it's time for a change.

Instead of removing the event completely or replacing it with another city, the Monte Carlo tournament should switch from being played on clay in April, to a brand new & unique Grass 1000 event during July. This will have 0 impact on the ATP schedule, but what it will do is add a new & exciting element to the game with a brand new M1000 that has been talked about for so many years but has never come to life.

Plus, what's the point of having 3 Masters 1000 on CLAY, all within a 1-month timeframe? That is way too much tennis (esp for top players), and clay makes it even more exhausting and physical right before a very important grand slam in RG.

So taking out 1 week from clay, and adding that extra week for grass would be the perfect solution and great preparation for Wimbledon. So instead of having the current 7-week European clay events before RG and only 3 for Grass before Wimbledon, it would be 6 weeks of clay before RG and 4 weeks before Wimby...making it much more balanced than before and giving grass specialists a better chance to improve their ranking and for everyone, in general, to improve on the surface for Wimbledon and for many years to come.

The ideal time to place Monte Carlo Grass 1000 in July would be right after the Queens/Halle week, and have Barcelona 500 during the current week of Monte Carlo. I would even add in Hamburg during the same week to make it in a better schedule/more interesting, and replace Hamburg with the current event in Budapest which instead will take place after Wimbledon during the current week of Hamburg (although clay events after grass and before NA hard courts is stupid & pointless, but that's for a different discussion)

Who's with me?!

 

[Servebots=GOAT]

I’m 100% with you bro, tennis needs way more grass courts and especially needs a masters 100 on grass. Makes no sense how they have 3 masters on clay and 6 on hard and none on grass.

 

[Pedigree]

I agree on the need for a grass masters, but not Monte Carlo.

 

[Rustie]

Tennis needs more grass tournaments but this shouldn't be one of them.

 

[alwaysfan]

 

[Chokehater]

Yeah, let's change a unique event like MC instead of one of the countless dull Masters tourneys in NA.

/sarcasm

 

[Drango]

I guess this doesn't HAVE to be Monte Carlo, but the general point is to switch 1 of the clay Master 1000s to a new Grass 1000 in July, and instead of having 3 clay Masters and 0 grass, make it 2:1 instead.

This could also be Rome or Madrid, but Rome is very unlikely due to the strong history of the event - but Madrid could very well make the switch too instead of Monte Carlo. They've done a lot of experiments in the past with the blue clay as well, so the tournament organizers may be open to completely change it from clay to grass and also make it a combined event with WTA as well, so that not only men have a huge tournament on grass before Wimbledon.

 

[Chokehater]

I guess this doesn't HAVE to be Monte Carlo, but the general point is to switch 1 of the clay Master 1000s to a new Grass 1000 in July, and instead of having 3 clay Masters and 0 grass, make it 2:1 instead.

So why no change one of the 6 (!) HC masters? Is it because canadiens suck on clay?

 

[DieGOAT]

There are 6 hardcourt masters and 3 clay masters? I have a good idea, why not scratch one of the clay masters to make place for a grass masters

Where is the "lock thread, ban OP" option in the poll when you need it...

 

[hammett]

Time for the annual useless yet completely reasonable request for grass master series

 

[Pedigree]

Elevate Halle to a Masters or switch it with Hamburg in the calendar and make Hamburg a grass masters. Then demote the Paris Indoors to a 500. Tough to argue with that.

 

[Drango]

So why no change one of the 6 (!) HC masters? Is it because canadiens suck on clay?

Because the timing doesn't make sense for it. Those 5-6 masters are all taking place in the beginning & end of the year which is when the hard court season takes place. And the European swing is during the middle of the year when it's Wimbledon time and the grass season, so it doesn't make sense to change them from hard courts to another surface.

And although Paris is technically hard courts, it's played indoors which makes it a completely different feel than regular outdoor hard courts Masters. So realistically there are only 5 HC masters - 4 in NA, 1 in Asia, and there are 4 Masters in Europe (3 clay and 1 indoors). Seems very fair & balanced to me.

 

[Drango]

There are 6 hardcourt masters and 3 clay masters? I have a good idea, why not scratch one of the clay masters to make place for a grass masters

Where is the "lock thread, ban OP" option in the poll when you need it...

Those 3 clay Masters are all taking place within 1 MONTH, with each event lasting for only 1 week. That means way too much tennis on the slowest & most physical surface, especially for the top players.

Whereas all the hardcourts are no more than 2 weeks in a row and not more than 2 per month.

Also, it's not as much 6 as it is "5" outdoor hard courts - Paris Indoors has a completely different feel to it than the other 5 real (outdoor) HC masters.

 

[Drango]

Elevate Halle to a Masters or switch it with Hamburg in the calendar and make Hamburg a grass masters. Then demote the Paris Indoors to a 500. Tough to argue with that.

Hamburg should stick to being clay in my opinion, plus it rains there too much for it to be a Master 1000 on grass. I'm also not a huge fan of Paris being a 1000, but on the other hand it's nice to have an indoor Masters 1000 as well.

Halle can be a 1000, but I doubt the attendance will be great...so if anything it should be Queens Club between the 2.

Honestly the best solution is to switch either Monte Carlo or Madrid and turn it in a Grass Masters event. That way you're not making any major changes to the event or the year other than a simple change of surface & date.

 

[Bakano]

Revamp the whole calendar so we can get rid of a couple of HC M1000, a harsh, artificial, harmful to players' health surface so we can return to TRUE original tennis, which is OUTDOORS and on natural surfaces grass/clay.

 

[bilentsob]

However, because it's a non-mandatory event and is right after IW/Miami with short preparation time, its entry list is always weaker than all the other M1000s - and it's time for a change.

Paris Masters says hi.

 

[Chokehater]

Because the timing doesn't make sense for it. Those 5-6 masters are all taking place in the beginning & end of the year which is when the hard court season takes place. And the European swing is during the middle of the year when it's Wimbledon time and the grass season, so it doesn't make sense to change them from hard courts to another surface.

And although Paris is technically hard courts, it's played indoors which makes it a completely different feel than regular outdoor hard courts Masters. So realistically there are only 5 HC masters - 4 in NA, 1 in Asia, and there are 4 Masters in Europe (3 clay and 1 indoors). Seems very fair & balanced to me.

You just stated in OP you wanted to move MC from April to July, so why not move one of the HC masters to the grass season instead? Am I missing something?

We don't desperately need 2 HC masters prior to the USO and we also don't need IW + Miami occupying 4 weeks together.

Shanghai and Bercy should probably stay where they are right now. Shanghai because it's the only masters in Asia and highlight of the Asian swing and Bercy because it still gives a lot of players a chance to qualify for WTF, even if the event itself is nothing special.

 

[Drango]

You just stated in OP you wanted to move MC from April to July, so why not move one of the HC masters to the grass season instead? Am I missing something?

We don't desperately need 2 HC masters prior to the USO and we also don't need IW + Miami occupying 4 weeks together.

You can't move any of the NA Masters or Shanghai into the grass season....

Only exception is Paris Indoors. If you switch its surface it completely from indoor hard to outdoor grass then that could work. Or completely replace it with a different city.

That's the only other alternative.

Ideally though it would be nice to have 4-5 1000 HC, 2-3 on clay, 1 on grass, and 1 indoor. So if hypothetically speaking Paris indoors would switch to grass, I'd love to see Shanghai be played indoors to maintain a fair balance.

Just with 3 Master 1000s on clay in such a short timespan on a bit too much/packed. Very few players would be able to make big runs in those Masters, and if they overplay on a bunch of other clay tournaments they'll be exhausted before & during RG.

 

[Chokehater]

Oh Jetlag yeah, well Miami is only 5 hours from London, no?

And yeah the clay season is pretty packed, but mostly because of Madrid + Rome + RG combo. If you put MC right after RG you would probably make things even worse.

 

[Cloren]

Remove one of Miami/Paris and reduce IW to 1 week and slot in a grass masters. Shouldn’t hard really lol. Leave the clay masters alone tho please