The grass court season will be extended to three weeks in 2015 and Stuttgart will become a grass-court tournament then, the ATP announced. The tournament, which has been played on clay, will be played the week following Roland Garros.
Under the current calendar, there are ATP grass court tournament at Queen's Club (London), Halle, Eastbourne and 's-Hertogenbosch before Wimbledon, which is followed by a grass-court event at the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island.
TENNIS.com has leaned that Newport has decided not to become a Wimbledon warm-up event and will be still played the week after Wimbledon in 2015. Tournament director Mark Stenning said that the only week available to Newport would have been, like Stuttgart, the week after Roland Garros, and that’s when many kids in the United States are still in school or just getting out of school, and many families do not want to vacation then.
Stenning also said that Newport's type of grass might not be ready for play earlier in the season. The weather in the Northeast is also unpredictable in early June, while it is traditionally warmer and sunnier in July, when the tournament is now being played.
The ATP has not decided how the other tournaments will line up in 2015, but presumably Queen's and Halle — which already draw the best fields and are played the weeks after Roland Garros — will be moved to the second week, which is the optimum time as it gives players a chance to rest a week after Roland Garros and a week before Wimbledon.