A modest proposal (for the pro game)

What the pro game needs is a shot in the arm of good old-fashioned common sense. Just look at the injury-plagued men's and women's tours, if you don't believe me. Day-in, day-out competition for 44-plus weeks leaves little time for athletes' bodies to adequately heal, let alone invest in root cause analysis and remediation of unsound footwork or stroke production. Then there's the ridiculous scheduling of the Grand Slam events. Show me another major sport in which the athletes compete for a major prize a mere two weeks after coming off a 6- to 8-week hiatus. Tennis does just that by holding the Australian Open in mid-January — smack dab in the heart of the Aussie summer, to boot! Something's got to change, and I propose we start by rethinking the Grand Slam event schedule. Afterall, those are the most coveted prizes in the sport.

An editor with ATP Tennis International's media division once said to me: "It (the Grand Slam schedule) is what it is. Sure, a lot of people would love to start the Autralian Open a little later, and a week extra between the French Open and Wimbledon would be great. You've also got Davis Cup to throw in there. It's a complicated thing." You'll get no argument from me. Which is exactly why we need to SIMPLIFY and UNIFY the tour schedule.

Let's take a look at the current Grand Slam schedule. We start the year off with the Australian in the third and fourth week of January. Seventeen weeks after the last ball has been struck Down Under, Roland Garros (hereafter referred to as the French) commences. Fifteen days after the French champion is crowned, the first ball is struck at The Championships (Wimbledon) in London. Fifteen days! The Slams conclude with the U.S. Open, held seven weeks after Wimbledon and spanning the Labor Day holiday. Freeze frame that, and think about how absurd a schedule it truly is. Make a special note that the last man to win both the French and Wimbledon titles back-to-back was Bjorn Borg in 1980. This fact alone should be cause enough to reconsider the scheduling of the sport's premier events.

Borg's back-to-back titles were an amazing feat that may never happen again, should we continue on our present course. Something must be done about the scheduling of the French and Wimbledon championships, or Wimbledon fans will have to endure many more early-round losses by the French victor, if not pre-match withdrawals.

If you happened to catch Larry King Live a few nights after Andre Agassi bowed to the crowd in his signature way for the final time, you would have heard Andre address a question from a woman caller who asked if he’d consider accepting the role of Commissioner of Tennis. Of course, this idea is not new, as John McEnroe once promoted the idea, half in jest, half in an attempt to elevate himself to the equivalent of a Pete Rozelle. At any rate, Andre wisely said he’d consider such a role only if it were not dangled before him as a token gesture, but really had teeth. (Read a transcript of the Andre Agassi interview on CNN's Larry King Live.)

Well, Andre, if you or Johhny Mac should ever become the Commissioner of Tennis, I have a modest proposal for you. I believe the ideal pro tennis season, including the Grand Slam and Davis Cup schedule, should look something like this:

January...
Season opens after New Year's Day with seven weeks of indoor and hardcourt play designed to prepare players for the two-week hardcourt championships Down Under. That would mean the Australian Open would begin the second or third week in February and end the first or second week in March.

7 weeks later (1st week in May)...
After several claycourt events throughout South America and Europe, the French Open should commence. That would place the start at the first week in May and the finale the third week.

7 weeks later (2nd week in July)...
After the French, with a lineup of stellar grasscourt tournaments in the U.S. and Northwestern Europe, hold Wimbledon, beginning the second week in July and wrapping up at the end of the month.

7 weeks later (2nd or 3rd week in September)...
Seven weeks of hardcourt play throughout North America should bring us to New York for the last of the Slams — the U.S. Open — to be held the second and third weeks in September.

Week 37-41 (last week in September through third week in October)...
Thirty-six weeks of Grand Slam Series events will have elapsed, leaving two weeks for the year-end Masters Series championships and two for the Davis and Fed Cup finals, respectively. Four weeks after the last ball is struck at the U.S. Open, draw the curtain and let the players take their bows and go home.

Weeks 42 through 52...
Once the Cup victors are determined, give the players a much needed 10- to 11-week (more than two months) hiatus to mend their bodies, enjoy the holidays like the rest of us, and regroup with their coaches to work out the kinks and learn new tricks.

Consider...

The Australian is held in the suffocating summer swelter Down Under (hence the retractable roof over the stadium court). Heat injuries are common. This is due in part to the absence of competition prior to this first of tennis's Slams, a victory without which none can claim the grandest prize in the sport — the Grand Slam. More time should be allotted to hard court play prior to this pivotal event. Let's move the Australian out five or six weeks to the end of February, and work in several week-long hard court events on America’s west coast as well as throughout the burgeoning Asian markets. An Australian Open Series touring the Pacific Rim would be created, in much the same way as the U.S. Open Series was, which by all accounts has been hugely successful and gives sports fans a reason to watch the smaller events leading up to the Slams. Besides, who's brilliant idea was it to broadcast the Aussie Open during the NFL playoffs?

The next stop, the French, is currently held a full four months after the Australian, when Spring is springing in Paris. That's certainly plenty of time to prepare for the physical demands of the slow red dirt. Fact is, it may be too much time, as players have by then begun to feel the effects of the long and grinding claycourt season in Europe, with the well-established, popular and hotly contested Monte Carlo, German (Hamburg) and Italian Opens (Rome) played as lead-ups to the French. Moving the French up two weeks, to the first week of May, would mean the field of dirtballers would be fresh as tulips. Why continue to compete with Americans’ Memorial Day travels? It just doesn’t make good economic or marketing sense.

This brings us to Wimbledon, which has traditionally been every tennis player's dream prize. Let's push Wimbledon out two weeks, so that the first ball is struck in the second week of July. I ask: Why should Americans' Fourth of July be spoiled by having to watch the British flag wave majestically over the grounds of the All-England Club? And again, many Americans vacation on the Fourth, which means fewer people at home viewing The Championships. We've now gained an additional five weeks between the French and Wimbledon. A total of seven weeks between these two most difficult (and different) challenges — the one a trial of endurance, heart and backcourt skill; the other a test of athleticism, will and frontcourt acumen — would give the late-round contestants at the French time to tune themselves to the speed and unpredictability of the turf. Who knows, maybe we'll yet see another men's Grand Slam champion in our lifetime.

Inserting five additional weeks between the French and Wimbledon championships might also encourage the creation of several new grass court events prior to the Big W. This would give claycourters much needed practice on the tricky stuff and would create a mini-season for the grasscourt game, which I fear is inching toward extinction. Bring back the grass — there's nothing else like it in professional sports today. Can you say “Wimbledon Series”?

With a slight reshuffling of the deck, the Campbell’s Hall of Fame Tennis Championships, currently held each year the week following Wimbledon, could be moved to one of the weeks prior to Wimbledon, if not the week just before. Think of it, Newport, Rhode Island abuzz with the best players in the world moored in that rustic sailing town for a week to determine the Wimbledon favorite. As it is today, none of the biggest names in the game and few in the top-50 come to play on the hallowed lawns where each year a few legends of the game are inducted. What a spectacle it could be, were the Casino to regain some of its former glory. Who knows, the finals and inductions might even fall on the Fourth of July, as the Stars and Stripes proudly waves.

Let's not forget there are two or three other great sites for a grasscourt event on American soil, where TV revenues so greatly impact the solvency of the professional game. Philadelphia has at least three fine lawn tennis clubs that could hold a large event — the U.S. National Championships was won by Bill Tilden at the Germantown Cricket Club. And the Longwood Cricket Club in Boston could still muster up a pro-sized event. I saw Arthur Ashe and others play there in 1968 as a young summer camper in New Hampshire. Then there are the beautiful lawns of Southhampton, New York, out on the Long Island Sound, another site that would draw a sizable and well-heeled crowd.

Finally, we come to the season-ending U.S. Open in New York, an event that inspires every player with a passion for the game and a penchant for the dramatic to play their gutsiest, grittiest best. I would change very little there, except push it off of the Labor Day weekend (same old refrain: travel… vacation…) to the third week in September, when the summer sun is waning and apple-picking season has begun. I'd suggest only that it be made a purely night-time event, ensuring an electric atmosphere and guaranteeing a capacity crowd. Big city, bright lights. Cold beer and hot pretzels. Who could ask for anything more?

So there you have it. Simple, isn't it? Now if only we can find a way to nudge a few Tier 1 and Tier 2 tournaments over a little to make room for a Slam or two, and perhaps get everyone to agree on a one-week break from play after each Slam.... Andre, a little help please.

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