Say, does anyone think it would be possible for the Masters Series final, scheduled to be held in Houston in 2003 and 2004, to be played on all surfaces? It's already a round-robin tournament, right? I think it could work like this:

The top eight players are all guaranteed three matches, one on each surface, in the elimination round. It would be total luck of the draw whether you would be forced to play Costa on grass or on clay.

Then, in the semifinals and finals, you have a few options:

1) play them all on hard court, the "international" surface

2) play them on rotating surfaces, so in 2003 it would be grass & hard in the semis and clay in the finals; while in 2004 it could be hard & clay in the semis and grass in the finals; and in 2005 grass & clay in the semis and hard in the finals.

3) play each of the first sets on clay, then move to grass for the second sets, then finally hard court for the final set. I know it's WAY too gimmicky, but aren't we trying to figure out the best player, regardless of surface? I think it would be a serious hoot.

If we go by this year's top eight, we'd have Hewitt, Safin, Henman, Costa, Agassi, Federer, Johansson, and Ferrero. I'm not sure how they divide up the groups, but let's say it's:

Hewitt, Ferrero, Costa & Agassi in the Rosewall Group.

Safin, Henman, Federer & Johansson in the Newcombe Group.

Hewitt v. Ferrero on grass
Hewitt v. Costa on clay
Hewitt v. Agassi on hard
Ferrero v. Costa on hard
Ferrero v. Agassi on clay
Costa v. Agassi on grass

Safin v. Henman on grass
Safin v. Federer on clay
Safin v. Johansson on hard (rematch of Melbourne)
Henman v. Federer on hard
Henman v. Johansson on clay
Federer v. Johansson on grass

Some really interesting stuff, no?

westside tennis club, where the finals will be played, markets itself as having all four surfaces.

the davis cup was held there on grass and the u.s. clay courts were held there on red clay.

i was kinda' assuming the masters finals would be held indoors, though the westside indoor facilities would need an upgrade for that to happen.

Neat idea, but I don't see the players wanting to play on different surface three consecutive days, let alone three consecutive sets! And I don't think grass belongs in the mix. Wimbledon aside, there is not one meaningful tournament played on the grass. Forcing such a gimmick when so much $$$ is on the line would never fly.

As a huge aside, I do think the Australian Open should be indoors on the carpet. Then, each Grand Slam would be on a different surface.

...and you'd never have to worry about rain delays.

PCC, your idea is good in theory. But trying to get a draw consisting of 128 men, 128 women plus all the doubles into an indoor venue? That would have to be one large facility. And any facility I've seen with numerous indoor courts has no seating, so they couldn't accomodate fans either.

Rotating surfaces is a good idea for a fantasy tournament (best player of all time!), but really lousy in practice. Given how much training goes into preparation for the French and US (and there's a huge outcry to push Wimbledon back to allow more grass tournamnets) having a tournament on three different surfaces is just not going to fly.

And what's the deal with indoor and/or carpet? It seems silly to me. The two hard court Slams have different types of surfaces, so I don't think there's a rush to change anything. Rebound Ace gets enough complaints as is, so I can't see the Aussies trying to switch it. And the US Open definitely isn't switching anytime soon.