ATP Chief Gaudenzi confirms ATP plans on holding an ATP 1000 event on grass

Andrea Gaudenzi thinks that having an ATP 1000 event on grass before Wimbledon is something the ATP is seriously looking at.

The ATP Masters schedule generally features nine events, six of which are held on hard courts and three on clay, but over the last couple of years, we only had eight with the Shanghai Masters not being held due to the Coronavirus.

The idea of having a 10th Masters is something the ATP has had conversations about it for a long time but it seems like the Tour is settled on making the 10th one a grass event. Gaudenzi confirmed that line of thinking in a recent interview saying:

“There are three weeks between the French Open and Wimbledon. Grass is the only surface on which a Masters 1000 tournament is not played. This means that between Rome and the Canada Masters in the summer, the ATP has no premium content for the fans for two months. Because almost all players start in the middle of the three grass weeks before Wimbledon, a grass Masters makes sense, especially in the large and important market of Germany, which was the number one tennis market in the 1990s.

Gaudenzi then explained that most likely it would either be in Germany or the UK, specifically Halle and Queen's Club:

“The Germans love tennis and its history. It’s the same with the UK market. It has the same chances as Germany of a grass masters. It offers the advantage that the players are already in London before Wimbledon. But London already has Wimbledon. Our plan is that there will be 10 ATP Masters 1000 tournaments in the future.”