The New Grass Swing

At last the ATP is filling it's calendar with grass court events as of 2015!

Queens and Halle to be 500 events
Events in Stuggart Hertongenbosch and Nottingham 48-draw previously held at Eastbourne
Newport to be held after Wimbledon (Which I find bizarre)

All it needs is a Masters 1000 event!

http://www.atpworldtour.com/News/Tennis/2014/02/7/ATP-World-Tour-2015-Calendar.aspx

What do we think people?

Great news. Nowhere near enough in my opinion, but a step in the right direction. It needs a masters for sure, and a couple more meaningful tournies. Ideally ending with Wimbledon.

Newport's always been after W hasn't it. The big change is adding the extra week between the FO and Halle/Queens. Before, it was direct from one to the other, now there are extra tournaments and a rest week.

It's superb stuff for the tournament directors of Halle and Queens. Halle are always sweating on RF if he makes FO SF or F, so he has to week to recover. It's also good news for Rafa as he will likely go to the FO final and then get's an extra week rest before Wimbledon which he really needs after his physicallly demanding clay season.

Arguably bad news for Murray who if he loses early at FO perhaps goes into Wimbledon with a fitness and focus advantage (debatable).

But for many players, including top ones, it it just a rest week added, not much of an expansion to the grass court season.

By the way, I think all this was announced ages back, this is just the confirmation of the full calendar.

It's very good news for Rafa, who has struggled with the transition in recent years. It's good for Roger too, as extra time between majors at his age is positive.

Not sure it's good or bad for Andy or Novak. Perhaps bad but only because it's good for Rafa and Roger.

Yes, more of an expansion in terms of time to rest/acclimatise than of tournaments. Stuttgart is really the only new grass court event, as Nottingham replaces Eastbourne the week before Wimbledon. If that's a 48 draw though, that's more than at Eastbourne which is 28.

Incidentally, I hadn't noticed (or had forgotten) that Halle's draw is half the size of Queen's - 28 v 56. Does anyone know if these might change, with the upgrade from 250 to 500? I'm guessing not, due to the size of the venues.

It will be interesting to see what sort of entry Nottingham will get, as it's a bigger field than Eastbourne, and won't have 's-Hertogenbosch in competition (that moves to share the first grass court week with Stuttgart).  Though as it's so close to Wimbledon, I think a lot of the top players prefer just to practise at Wimbledon itself, or play a match or two at one of the exhos that are held that week.

@LU... Thrilled to have you here.