Still plenty of time to reconsider and implement some changes. And it's not like these days there are no restrictions about how many top 10 players can play certain tournaments. People just don't talk about it as much.

true, there's the whole gold and silver exempt thingy and the restriction on Tier IV, but it seems to me that with the new schedule it will be a lot more limited for top 10 players. A lot of tournaments (esp. what is tier II now) usually have some top players (e.g Amelia Island) but will be off-limit next year.

I don't think there are enough tournaments in the calendar to keep Jankovic, Daniela, Bartoli etc busy.

i think not only wta but atp also to add more grass tournaments
only two weeks warm-up events is very little.

me too. I love grass court tournaments.

I love grass courts on the first day of the tournaments, when the grass is clean, completely green. On the second day, it's already too late...

Maybe Queen's should be upgraded in the future so that Federer turns up instead of playing in Halle!

Thats the thing though isnt it. Halle would do their nut if Queens got upgraded to a Master Series because it would meen the top 50 players in the world would have no choice but to commit to Queens and Halle would have no one left

Scott

very true.

the calendar seems weird to me because HOW DOES A PLAYER WANT TO ADVANCE HIGHER IN RANK if they are a lot of restriction for a top 10 or maybe Top 13 player??

2009 calendar announced today



full article

Based on what I gather, here are my impressions of the new calendar. Keep in mind that I could be wrong with some of these assumptions, this is only based on what I gathered from one quick read.

Good:
Penalizing players for missing 8 tournaments; instead of just five.
- This rewards the most dedicated players and penalizes the prima donnas like the Williamses and Sharapovas who think they are bigger than the sport. I hope they go one step farther and kick them out of the next grand slam, as well.
Better hospitality.
- Players now get more of their hotel costs paid for by the tour. They, of course, should cover all travel expenses as virtually every major sport does. The longer off-season is nice, too.

Bad:
Limiting participation of top players in international tournaments.
- They have greatly watered down the value of winning smaller tournaments. I think it's ridiculous when you hear someone say or infer that since Flavia Pennetta has won more tournaments than Daniela, she has had a better career. The former tier fours were already a lost cause but limiting the former tier threes to one top twenty player apiece is absurd. You're going to have mediocre players ranked between 30-40 winning plenty of titles throughout the year. Meanwhile, players like Daniela, Schnyder, Bartoli, etc will have limited opportunities to win titles as they will be locked out of most small tournaments and not quite good enough to win big tournaments. (There will still be upsets in larger tournaments, of course).
The second YEC in Bali
-This second YEC for Bali is going to be a joke with these rules. Not counting the ranking points accrued in the big tournaments is foolish. You won't get players 9-16 there; instead, you'll get players 25-32. Are there any other wrestling fans out there? This is analogous to what WWE's intercontinental title has become. It only works if you have athletes considered just a step below the top level, not the players who can't hack it with the big girls so they play only the small events.
There are no premium tournaments in the whole month after Wimbledon.
- Why not just shave a week or two off of the off-season?
Ranking system
- It's just a spin off of what they have now. Again, the system needs to take into account opponent adjustments and give more weight to more recent results.