What Makes A Fifth Major?
As the ATP Tour and Sony Ericsson WTA Tour move towards holding more combined events, i.e. men and women compete at the same tournament, in 2009 and beyond, there has been renewed haggling over which tournament is or should be or could be considered as the “fifth major” after the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments. Over the past 10-15 years, the year-end ATP and WTA Championships, as well as the tournaments
in Indian Wells, California, (i.e. Newsweek and Pacific Life Championships) and Key Biscayne, Florida (Lipton, NASDAQ 100 and Sony Ericsson Championships) have been the closest thing to a “fifth major” on the tennis calendar. However, as more and more combined men’s and women’s pro tennis tournaments appear on the tournament schedule, the question of which tournament is the “fifth major” becomes even harder to answer.
What defines a “fifth major”? Is it total prize money? Total tournament attendance? History, tradition and past champions? Stadiums and grounds? In the end, the real answer is all of the above which explains why there will be much debate about this question in the coming years. Over time, the newer combined men’s and women’s tennis tournaments in cities such as Madrid will stake their claim to the moniker of “fifth major” while the long-standing events will endeavor to establish themselves even more into the history and tradition of the sport of tennis. As my friend likes to say, “It’s all good”…
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