Wimbledon to start as planned on June 28, announcing shorter grass swing

For the first time since 1945, Wimbledon had to close its gates last year due to the coronavirus, with the organizers doing everything to host the Championships in two and a half months.

Roland Garros announced yesterday they would push the start of the season's second Major for seven days, leaving the pre-Wimbledon grass swing at only two weeks and causing many troubles for those tournaments' organizers. Wimbledon will make no compromises, setting the start of the Championships for June 28.

"Today the French Tennis Federation has announced that due to the exceptional challenges presented by the Covid-19 pandemic and national French restrictions, the staging of Roland-Garros will be postponed by one week. This decision has been discussed with the Grand Slam Board, and, given the exceptional circumstances, is fully supported by the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the US Open.

All four Grand Slam tournaments are united in their view on the importance of a meaningful build-up to every Grand Slam, to provide players of all competitive levels with appropriate opportunities to practice, prepare and compete on the relevant surface. It was for this reason that the Grand Slams, together with the Tours, were supportive of changes to the calendar to create an enhanced grass court season of three weeks between Roland-Garros and The Championships from 2015 onwards.

It is widely agreed that this change has been very successfully received. However, given the considerable challenges ahead of the FFT in staging Roland-Garros, and to avoid further impact on the rest of the calendar, the grass court season between Roland-Garros and Wimbledon will be reduced by one week in 2021. The Championships will begin as planned on 28 June 2021, with Qualifying taking place from 21 June 2021. The grass court season between Roland-Garros and Wimbledon will return to three weeks from 2022."