[kz87]

Hi! This is my first post in here, since I used to visit this forum years ago but forgot my account and password.

I want to discuss a little about the ATP calendar, which in my opinion has improved significantly the last years with more consistent hard/clay/grass seasons and feels a little less overwhelmed than a few years ago. However, I never got to understand why two of the biggest Masters 1000 (Indian Wells and Miami) are basically in nowhere land, right before the strenuous clay season and right after the DC, which means they don't have a proper build up either.

At the same time, February is one of the most disjointed months in the calendar with almost no one from the top 10 actually playing and 3 to 4 increasingly loose "mini tours" played in different surfaces and continents:
1) Latin American tour: maybe the most consistent pack of tournaments, altough the organizers switch from year to year and the last one (Acapulco) is played on a different surface.
2) European indoor tour: 3 pretty well connected and consistent tournaments that come from and lead to nowhere in particular.
3) US hard outdoor tour: New York and Delray Beach. Maybe they could add Houston and have a decent mini build-up to IW and Miami.
4) Pune-Dubai? Mid East - Asian tour?

I think that it's possible to build a more consistent calendar if we move 3 (and maybe 4) to the aftermath of the Australian Open and as a buildup for IW-Miami, have those two masters inmediatly after, DC recess and then having a little less than a month to build up for the clay season through Latin American tour (played in the same surface) or European indoor tour (which reduces travelling distance). As an added bonus, the switch allows to play in the US and Latin America at a sligthly lower temperature (it also decreases in Europe but assuming there's only indoor tournaments there I don't think it would be a big deal) and the year calendar would be simply divided into 5 seasons:

January-February: Early outdoor hard season (1 GS, 2 M1000)
March-April-May: Mostly clay season, buildup to RG (1 GS, 3 M1000)
June: Grass season, buildup to W (1 GS)
July-August-September: Late outdoor hard season, buildup to USO (1 GS, 2 M1000)
October-November: Indoor season + Masters Cup (2 M1000 + Masters Cup)

What do you think? Is this feasible/advisable? Would that improve the attendance of the top players to smaller tournaments in February/March? Or will it just result in an even more tiresome calendar?

 

[Meddy Bär]

i was thinking something similar, as of right now it is a hot mess

prolly nothing will change tough..

 

[guitarra]

Neither current calendar nor the OP’s proposal is ideal. The problem with moving 2 ATP 1000 to February is that top players usually need more time to rest/ recover after the gruelling 2-week slam. But yeah, it would probably still make more sense than the current mishmash.

 

[oshobiintro]

Shorten IW and Miami into one week each

 

[STRONGSTYLE]

I've thought about this before and I think the simplest thing to make things neater is: swap the months, reduce IW too one week each and remove Miami (my least favourite master). All of the top players player at least one tournament in February, Acapulco or Dubai, let that February tournament be IW. The golden slam can be in march leading upto the European clay court season and the indoor European and American hard court runs can also be in march for players who still want to play hard court after AO.

 

[kz87]

Shorten IW and Miami into one week each

I think this could be easily done, going from a 96 player field to 64 (only 32 games less anyway, and the seeded players stay the same) and having a stronger qualifying round. I imagine something like this:

February
Week 1 - New York, Pune
Week 2 - Delray Beach, Dubai
Week 3 - IW
Week 4 - Miami

March
Week 1 - DC recess
Week 2 - Santiago/Cordoba, Houston
Week 3 - Santiago/Cordoba, Montpellier
Week 4 - Buenos Aires, Rotterdam
Week 5 - Rio de Janeiro, Marseille

April
Week 6 - Acapulco, Marrakech
Week 7 - Montecarlo

Thoughts?

 

[raysun68]

I think this could be easily done, going from a 96 player field to 64 (only 32 games less anyway, and the seeded players stay the same) and having a stronger qualifying round. I imagine something like this:

February
Week 1 - New York, Pune
Week 2 - Delray Beach, Dubai
Week 3 - IW
Week 4 - Miami

March
Week 1 - DC recess
Week 2 - Santiago/Cordoba, Houston
Week 3 - Santiago/Cordoba, Montpellier
Week 4 - Buenos Aires, Rotterdam
Week 5 - Rio de Janeiro, Marseille

April
Week 6 - Acapulco, Marrakech
Week 7 - Montecarlo

Thoughts?

Good idea overall, but Acapulco right before MC would essentially ruin the tournament, it's literally the other side of the globe. I say Houston is good where it is, for Americans and lower ranked players who can't get into MC. Acapulco should still stay with Dubai in February, Delray Beach could go in early March for those who want to play more after losing early in Miami. That would make a logical calendar, not that it's realistic with like 10 changes at once ?

 

[Pedigree]

I think this could be easily done, going from a 96 player field to 64 (only 32 games less anyway, and the seeded players stay the same) and having a stronger qualifying round. I imagine something like this:

February
Week 1 - New York, Pune
Week 2 - Delray Beach, Dubai
Week 3 - IW
Week 4 - Miami

March
Week 1 - DC recess
Week 2 - Santiago/Cordoba, Houston
Week 3 - Santiago/Cordoba, Montpellier
Week 4 - Buenos Aires, Rotterdam
Week 5 - Rio de Janeiro, Marseille

April
Week 6 - Acapulco, Marrakech
Week 7 - Montecarlo

Thoughts?

I like the creative thinking. Slight modification to move Miami and IW away from Australia. Since IW is the bigger tournament these days, it should probably go second with Miami being more of a lead-in. I like keeping the hardcourt season together through Indian Wells and, then, switching to clay.

February
Week 1 - Pune, Montpellier
Week 2 - Dubai, Marseille, New York
Week 3 - Rotterdam, Delray Beach
Week 4 - Miami

March
Week 1/2 - Indian Wells
Week 3 - Acapulco (on clay), Cordoba
Week 4 - Rio, Santiago

April
Week 1 - Buenos Aires, Houston, Marrakech
Week 2 - Monte Carlo

 

[-Dominator-]

I also thought about this and opening a thread. The following issues with the current calendar I'd like to solve:

1. Golden Swing isn't popular enough
2. SA needs a M1000
3. IW and particularly Miami are too close to the clay season
4. Miami sucks

So this is what I'd come up with:

February
Week 1: Montpellier, Pune
Week 2: Rotterdam, New York
Week 3: Dubai, Marseille, Delray Beach
Week 4: IW (Part 1)

March
Week 1: IW (Part 2)
Week 2: Miami (non-madatory M1000 / ATP 500), Cordoba
Week 3: Acapulco (clay), Buenos Aires
Week 4: Rio (M1000)

April
Week 1: Santiago, Houston, Marrakech
Week 2: MC (start of the European clay swing)

The March weeks 2-4 still have room for optimization, but we basically have 3 or 4 weeks in SA immediately before the European clay swing to work with.

 

[BodyServe]

Personally i would scrap Dubai/Acapulco, move the rest one week earlier, possibly have one more week on grass. February is ok as it is.

 

[Break point Dom.]

Said last week I'd swop Rio/Miami in the calender or play Miami before IW.

Rio could become the first major clay tournament of the clay swing from start of April and be bumped up to south American masters.