20 Jul 2012

Wimbledon will start a week later from 2015

8:30 am on 20 July 2012

The Wimbledon tennis tournament will be moved back one week from 2015 in a bid to allow players more time to rest and adapt to grass after the French Open.

All England Club chiefs agreed the schedule switch after pressure from several stars including world number one Novak Djokovic and two-time Wimbledon champion Rafael Nadal, who believe the current two-week gap between the conclusion of the clay-court season at Roland Garros and the start of the third grand slam of the year is too short.

Djokovic, Nadal and many of their peers have complained that the present schedule doesn't offer sufficient recovery time after the French Open and leaves little opportunity to play enough matches on grass to make the alterations required to deal with the unique challenges of the faster surface.

The entire grass-court season lasts for five months, with the majority of the tour played on hard and clay courts.

But the decision to move Wimbledon back will allow for more rest after Paris and could open up space for additional grass-court events.

Wimbledon 2015 will run from June 29th to July 12th.