These words have no doubt been said by Woody Nelson and Snoop Dogg Lion once or twice, but the grass I'm talking about has been played on since 1860.
Currently there are only 3 major grass court tournaments each year, Wimbledon, the Gerry Weber Open in Germany, and the Aegon Championships in London. Only 3 tournaments on the very surface that tennis was invented on!
The tennis season is chock-full of tournaments all year long, and with Wimbledon moving a few weeks back from the French Open in a few years, we'll have (hopefully) a few more tennis tournaments leading up to The Championships.
The Proposal: There are plenty of possibilities of adding a grass court tournament, but I think the best idea is to change one of the Masters Events from either a hard court or clay court, to a grass court. It can even have a cool name: The GRASSTERS. Toronto could do it, but a good idea could be the Mutua Madrid Open, which changed from an indoor carpet court to a clay court in 2009. Players have hated the tournament since it became a clay one, including the experiment that was Blue Clay.
The ATP does grass and tennis a disservice by only having 3 major tournaments on the schedule every year. The 2012 London Olympics have done a lot for the idea of having more major tournaments in the schedule. Results of three set tennis on grass courts are unexpected, exciting, and just plain fun to watch. Guys like Milos Raonic and John Isner could benefit from playing on grass courts that help big servers, while they are at a distinct disadvantage to European players who grew up on clay in clay court tourneys. It seems only fair.
Will we get a Masters grass court tournament? It's tough to tell at this point, but I would welcome the addition of another grass curt tournament that means something on the schedule!
How could you not want great tennis points like the ones in the following video? Here's to hoping the grass court masters, or as I've coined it The GRASSTERS. Enjoy!
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