Representatives of the four biggest tennis tournaments are to meet next week to discuss implementing changes to Grand Slam tournaments.
Officials from the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon Championships, and the US Open are set to meet in London with any changes made likely to have a effect on the biggest tournaments in the tennis calendar.
Changes such as adding a shot clock between points, the option to receive coaching during the match, and the discussion of removing the number of seeded players in a draw back to 16 from the current number of 32, are to be considered.
Some of the proposed changes have been in the spotlight this week, with in-match coaching and shot clocks being trialled at the ATP Next Gen Finals in Milan. The tournament is also trialling a new match format where athletes play five sets of four games instead of the current best of three sets to six games outside of Grand Slam tournaments.
All four tournaments have autonomy over their own events so should one tournament decide to make a change it would not require the support nor the participation of the other three. Examples where this is already the case include Wimbledon, which bases its seedings on players past performance on grass in addition to the ATP rankings, and the US Open, which plays a tiebreak at 6-6 in the fifth set.
Any changes that result from the meetings in London could be implemented in time to feature on the tennis calendar for 2017. The Grand Slam events are separate from the ATP, WTA, and ITF so any changes implemented by the four major tournaments would not necessarily affect other tournaments.
