ATP Plans to Cut Masters Events

Roger Federer & Rafael Nadal are protesting the ATPs plans to downgrade Masters Series Monte Carlo and Hamburg to lesser tournnaments starting in 2009. They claim the changes are coming too soon and wonder why none of the four North American Masters Events have been cut. Perhaps they like playing the big events at home.

Apparently, ATP chief Etienne de Villiers is more interested in expanding ATP tennis, as he has added a Masters Series event in Shanghai. The sad thing is that downgrading both these clay court events would make the road the French Open less interesting. Although De Villiers wants to change the indoor Masters Madrid to an outdoor spring tournament.

Tennis execs want to have a U.S. Open Series lead up to each Grand Slam eventually -- six weeks of tournaments with points at stake; the winners eligible for increased the prize money at the U.S. Open. It would be nice to see one or two Masters Series events before each Grand Slam. And what about extending the grass court season to have a Masters Series event on grass? The goal, as hinted in December of last year, was to reduce the number of Masters Series events in general to four or five.

Some wonder why this is that the goal? Why not 6 or 7? If shortening the season is the goal, there are plenty of other ways to do that. The fans, and many players both enjoy having so many big tournaments.