Chapter 1497 Grass Season

Professional tennis, including the ATP and WTA, runs from January to November throughout the year, with only a one-month offseason in December.

However, in such a long season, there is only one month of grass, that is, in June, and there are only a handful of grass events in the world. With the comprehensive promotion of hard courts, the role of grass in the tennis world is even greater. It is being marginalized and gradually losing its position.

At this point, some people may have doubts: If this is the case, why not just cancel the grass season?

Is it because Wimbledon, one of the four Grand Slams, is still grass?

But the point is that the Australian Open, the French Open and the US Open used to be grass in history, and then they all changed the venue type, so why can't Wimbledon do this? As long as Wimbledon also changes the venue, can the grass court withdraw from the stage of history forever?

Here, an interesting little thing can be said—

The younger generation of players including Kyrgios, Bublik, Medvedev, etc. hate clay court very much, because they are all a generation that grew up on hard courts. They are very uncomfortable with the rhythm of clay court, and their basic skills are not solid enough. It is fully exposed, they have all said in public, "I hope the clay court can be cancelled", "Anyway, the clay court season is only two months" and so on.

However, they never complained, "Why not cancel the grass", "Anyway, the grass season is only one month".

The reason is very simple—

Tradition.

For tennis, grass represents tradition, without grass, there is no tennis.

As mentioned before, tennis was born as early as the 12th century and originated in France, so many tennis terms come from French.

However, modern tennis had to wait until 1873, when it was improved, perfected and developed in England. First, it transferred this sport that was used on land to grass, and then integrated a set of playing methods that were closer to modern tennis. A basic rule of tennis has been sorted out.

In 1877, the All England Cricket Club held the first lawn tennis championship in Wimbledon. They organized a committee of referees to draw up detailed rules for the game, which became the cornerstone and gradually evolved into the rules of contemporary tennis. Most of them are still in use today.

In the same year, the first Wimbledon Tennis Championships kicked off at the Wimbledon headquarters in the western suburbs of London. In a word, everything originates from here.

In that year, the club officially changed its name to the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, and later, it evolved into the "All England Club" that is now familiar to the whole world—

Among the four Grand Slams, the difference can be seen from the name. The Australian Open, the French Open (also known as Roland Garros), and the US Open are all "open tournaments". At the same time, the name of the country will be named, and the National Tennis Association will assist in the process.

The only exception is the Wimbledon Championships. This event, until today, is still not a state-supported event, but a private club event. It only opens up the entry restrictions and is open to all professional players around the world. It's still a private event.

The All England Club, this is the host of the Wimbledon Championships.

It is also because of this that Wimbledon is the most special and traditional among the four Grand Slam events. Since 1877, the tradition has been followed all the way. As a private club, they minimize the influence from the outside world and focus on inheritance. Keep your own traditions.

In other words, Wimbledon defined and promoted modern tennis. Their persistence is precisely the respect and admiration for tradition.

Since 1877, until now, Wimbledon has changed a lot after a century of ups and downs, but they still adhere to the essence of tennis.

Wimbledon, without the support from the state, resists the erosion of business as much as possible, but it can stand firm in the contemporary era of fierce competition and firmly occupy a place. In the final analysis, it is because of tradition. It serves as a platform to show people those classics. A thing of elegance and reawakening the love of tennis that has earned Wimbledon a special place of supremacy.

Tradition symbolizes classics and history—

There is no doubt that the historical status of the four Grand Slams is almost the same, but in the minds of the players, the Wimbledon championship always has the meaning of the crown. From Sampras to Federer, the inheritance of two generations of world champions is more or less We can all see that Wimbledon plays an important role in this event.

Federer was able to establish his status as the number one worldwide, largely due to his five consecutive Wimbledon titles from 2003 to 2007—

For insiders and experienced fans, Federer was able to establish his rule in an elegant and dignified way representing the traditional Wimbledon, which also means the birth of a world champion.

Not to mention that countless young players have a special longing for Wimbledon, as if enjoying tennis in history.

"Grass" is an important tradition that Wimbledon has always followed. The existence of this event continues to remind the younger generation that tennis originated from grass and developed on grass, which can best show tennis. The grounds of elegant charm are also this lush grassy area.

In fact, all four Grand Slam events have been played on grass—

The Australian Open, until 1987, was played on grass.

The U.S. Open, from 1925 to 1974, was also held on grass; from 1975 to 1977, it was switched to green soil in just three years; it was only switched to hard court after 1978, which is the only event that uses Played Grand Slam tournaments on three different venues.

Roland Garros ~lightnovelpub.net~ used grass very, very briefly between 1925 and 1927, but otherwise has been a traditional clay-court event.

It can be seen that Roland Garros has been adhering to the tradition of European clay courts in its own way, and Wimbledon has been adhering to the tradition that modern tennis originated on grass courts in its own way. The fierce competition between the two events in the contemporary commercial society , still sticking to their traditions.

This is worthy of respect. It can not only ensure the diversity of tennis and continue the charm of tennis in different venues; it can also remind people of the tradition of tennis at all times. The authentic charm of sports.

Of course, from the perspective of commercial promotion, hard courts are spread all over the world, which is a good thing for the popularity of tennis, just like basketball and football; however, the reason why tennis is tennis is because this sport has grass, clay and hard courts. Wait for the respective colors of different venues.

Therefore, even if the grass season is short, the ATP and WTA have always maintained the operation of the grass season, not just because of Wimbledon.

Similarly, Kyrgios and Bublik complained about the troubles on the clay courts, but they never expressed any dissatisfaction with the grass courts, even though the grass court season was only a short month away or even before the blink of an eye.

(end of this chapter)