Women's tour shortened from 2009

The WTA has unveiled a streamlined calendar which it hopes will mean fewer players withdrawing from events.

The new schedule, which will begin in 2009, features fewer top-level events and a nine-week off-season - a fortnight longer than the current one.

Injury withdrawals from events by top 10 players more than doubled in 2006.

"Players deserve a longer off-season and healthier schedule so that they can avoid injury and fatigue," said WTA chief executive Larry Scott.

"In return fans deserve to see more players consistently performing at their best at our tournaments."


TOP-TIER EVENTS
US: Charleston, Cincinnati, Indian Wells, Los Angeles, Miami, Montreal-Toronto, New Haven, Stanford.
Europe: Berlin, Eastbourne, Madrid, Moscow, Paris, Rome, Stuttgart.
Other: Beijing, Doha, Dubai, Sydney, Tokyo.

The number of Tier I and Tier II events will be cut to 20 from 26 with top players required to participate in 10 tournaments (in addition to the four Grand Slams), down from the current 14.

Four events will be mandatory - Key Biscayne, Indian Wells and new tournaments in Madrid and Beijing.

The women's season-ending Tour Championships will move to October from November to lengthen the off-season.

Top 10 players failing to play at tournaments as required will be subject to suspensions and larger fines than in the past.

The WTA Tour also announced that prize money will grow to an estimated $72 million (£54m) in 2009, 30% more than this year, and will be linked to commitments and revenue-sharing.

A new ranking system will be based upon 16 events and linked to the elite events with players missing a commitment taking a zero-point factoring into their ranking total.

The new nine-day tournament in Beijing is part of a major WTA push into China, where it will also open an Asian office.

We already knew some of it, such as San Diego being cut etc. But what are people's thoughts?

that's not fair that the us gets all them tier Is :blink:

btw what's happened to zurich then? that's a tier I

I don't think these features will stop players pulling out. It seems they're only interested in the slams, miami and the yecs :rolleyes:

Sounds good to me.

Although the article is a little confusing what with: "events being cut from 20 to 26" :wacko:

http://uk.reuters.com/article/tennisNews/idUKT32964620070412

Tokyo Pan Pacific Open moving to September and on to outdoor hardcourts.

Probably a sensible move as it will bring it into the same period as the China Open.

Yep :)

Having a Tier I event the week after a Grand Slam though was always questionable. I know that Tokyo has attracted several good players in the last few years, but generally it's one of the weakest Tier I tournaments.

But seeing as the China Open is now being made mandatory and gaining prestige won't this detract from Tokyo? Is it remaining a tier 1 in the new system?

There are too many top tier events in the USA. To have 5 North American top tier events in the space of 5 weeks in the build up to the US Open is pretty ridiculous.
Perfectly good tournaments in Antwerp and Zurich are getting scrapped completely which is a huge shame.
I also don't like the fact that the Pan Pacific Open is switching surface from carpet to hard. There is far too much hardcourt tennis on the tour already, and the surface is the most damaging to the body and causes the most injuries. With another carpet tournament in Antwerp getting binned, the surface is dying a death.

Im with you on that AA, I always thought it was great that we had a tier 1 on carpet, and Antwerp was always an enjoyable tournament.

I do like carpet and I think the WTA need to be more careful with it.

I don't mind the US Open Series to be honest. Although including Miami and Indian Wells there are an awful lot of top tier events in the US. Especially with Cincinatti at al getting promoted...very weird.

I really can't keep up :lol: