Exclusive: Wimbledon Chief Believes Extra Week is ‘crucial’ for the Sport

Changing the start-date of the most prestigious and tradition championship on the tennis calendar would always prove to be a sensitive move, order but Wimbledon Chief Executive, symptoms Richard Lewis, anabolics believes the extra week is ‘crucial’ for the sport.

Speaking exclusively to iSportconnect, he said: “Only having two weeks between Paris and Wimbledon is recognised by most people to be too short.

“Having an extra week allows the players more rest and recuperation. It allows more build-up, publicity and profile building for The Championships.

“Having three weeks between Grand Slams, basically a 50% increase in grass court play, is a very good thing for the public who will be able to see more grass court tennis.”

A former player himself, having tussled with the likes of Björn Borg and John McEnroe, Lewis believes that it’s not only the fans who will benefit from the new start date, the players will also be delighted to have more time on the green.

He added: “Crucially, it allows more practice time on grass and more grass court tournaments.

“The jump from clay to grass is the biggest leap of all, so having a longer lead in period to Wimbledon makes sense.

“Also, the players love playing on grass, so they’re quite happy there’s more grass court tennis.”

To read the full interview, click on the link:http://bit.ly/PzesNn

Guardian article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/oct/16/wimbledon-put-back-week?newsfeed=true