Chapter 1497 Grass Court Season
Professional tennis, including ATP and WTA, has a year-round tournament from January to November, with only a short off-season in December.
However, in such a long season, there is only one month belonging to grass courts, which is June. There are also only a handful of grass court events around the world. With the full promotion of hard courts, the role of grass courts in the tennis world has been marginalized and gradually lost its place.
At this point, some people may wonder: if that's the case, why not just cancel the grass court season? Is it because Wimbledon, one of the four Grand Slams, is still played on grass?
But the point is that the Australian Open, French Open and US Open were all played on grass in history, but later changed the venue type. So why can't Wimbledon do the same? As long as Wimbledon also changes the venue, will grass courts be eliminated from the stage of history forever? Here, there is an interesting little thing -
The young generation of players, including Kyrgios, Bublik, Medvedev, etc., hate clay very much because they all grew up on hard courts and are not very adaptable to the rhythm of clay. Their weak basic skills are often exposed on clay. They have all said in public, "I hope clay can be cancelled" and "the clay court season is only two months anyway", etc.
However, they never complained, "Why not cancel the grass court?" or "The grass court season is only one month anyway."
The reason is very simple -
Tradition.
For tennis, grass represents tradition. Without grass, there would be 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 to be improved, perfected and developed in the UK. First, this sport played on land was transferred to grass, and then a set of playing styles closer to modern tennis was integrated, and finally a set of basic tennis rules were compiled.
In 1877, the All England Cricket Club held the first Lawn Tennis Championships at Wimbledon. They organized a referee committee to formulate detailed rules for the game, which became the cornerstone and gradually evolved into the rules of contemporary tennis, most of which 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. This was not only the earliest tennis match in modern tennis history, but also the first official tennis event that could be traced back in history. In other words, everything originated here.
That year, the club was officially renamed the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, and later evolved into the "All England Club" familiar to the world today.
Among the four Grand Slams, the difference can be seen from the names. The Australian Open, the French Open (also known as Roland Garros), and the U.S. Open, these three events are all "open tournaments" and are named after the country. The national tennis associations assist in the organization.
The only exception is the Wimbledon Championships, which, to this day, is still not a state-supported event, but a project of a private club. It simply opens up the entry restrictions to all professional players around the world, but in essence, it is still a private event.
The All England Club is the host of the Wimbledon Championships.
It is precisely because of this that Wimbledon is the most special and traditional of the four Grand Slam tournaments. The tradition has been passed down since 1877. As a private club, they minimize external influences as much as possible and focus wholeheartedly on inheritance and preserving their own traditions.
In other words, Wimbledon defined and promoted modern tennis, and their persistence is precisely a respect and admiration for tradition.
Since 1877, until now, Wimbledon has gone through a century of ups and downs, but they still stick to the essence of tennis.
Wimbledon, without support from the country and trying its best to resist the erosion of business, has been able to stand firm in the fiercely competitive contemporary world and firmly occupy a place. Ultimately, it is because of its tradition. It serves as a platform to show people those classical and elegant things and to once again awaken people's love for tennis, which has also won Wimbledon a supreme and special status.
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 players, the Wimbledon champion always has the meaning of a crown. From Sampras to Federer, the inheritance of the two generations of tennis kings can more or less see that the Wimbledon event plays an important role.
A big part of the reason why Federer was able to establish his status as the world's best tennis player was because of his five consecutive Wimbledon titles from 2003 to 2007.
For industry insiders and veteran fans, Federer's ability to establish his dominance in an elegant and dignified manner at Wimbledon, which represents tradition, also represents the birth of the king of tennis.
Not to mention that countless young players have a special yearning for Wimbledon, as if they are entering history and enjoying tennis.
"Grass" is an important tradition that has been passed down at Wimbledon. The existence of this event continues to remind the younger generation that tennis originated from grass and developed on grass. The venue that can best showcase the elegance and charm of tennis is also this lush grass.
In fact, all four Grand Slams have been held on grass.
The Australian Open, until 1987, was played on grass.
The US Open was also held on grass from 1925 to 1974; it was switched to green clay for just three years from 1975 to 1977; and it was only after 1978 that it was switched to hard courts. This is also the only Grand Slam tournament to have used three different venues.
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The French Open, with a very, very brief stint on grass between 1925 and 1927, has otherwise been a traditional clay-court tournament.
It can be seen that Roland Garros has been upholding the tradition of European clay courts in its own way, and Wimbledon has been upholding the tradition that modern tennis originated from grass courts in its own way. Both events still adhere to their own traditions in the fierce competition of contemporary commercial society.
This is worthy of respect. It not only ensures the diversity of tennis and continues the charm of tennis on different venues; it also reminds people of the tradition of tennis at all times. Even if competitive sports continue to advance and innovate, it can still maintain the original charm of this sport.
Of course, from the perspective of commercial promotion, the spread of hard courts all over the world is a good thing for the popularization of tennis, just like basketball and football; however, the reason why tennis is tennis is that this sport has its own unique colors on different venues such as grass, clay and hard courts.
Therefore, even if the grass season is shorter, ATP and WTA will always maintain the grass season operation, and not just because of Wimbledon.
Similarly, even though the grass court season was over in just one month before we could even blink, Kyrgios and Bublik complained about the troubles of clay courts but never expressed any dissatisfaction with grass courts.
(End of this chapter)