Why is there no ATP Masters series 1000 event on grass courts?

Question

The ATP Masters series 1000 is the premier event in Men's tennis after the 4 Grand Slams. 1000 signifies the ranking points earned by the winner.
There are a total of 9 Masters 1000 events throughout the year. But they are either played on hard or clay courts.

Wimbledon, which is played on grass court, is considered to be the most prestigious event in Tennis. The Grandest Slam among Grand Slams.

So why is there no Masters 1000 event on grass courts either between French Open & Wimbledon or after Wimbledon?

It makes sense to not schedule the event between the 2 week gap from French Open to Wimbledon. But why not afterwords. Also, why not extend the gap to 3 weeks & schedule an event in between.

The only notable events leading up to Wimbledon are in Queen's Club in London & Gerry Webber Open in Germany, which are Masters 500 & 250 respectively with Nadal/Murray & Federer/Djokovic respectively participating

Similar is the case for WTA also.

Answer 1

You are not alone in asking this. Many fans and players have also started requesting a longer grass court season and having a grass court Masters 1000 event. Right now it has a lot to do with the tightness of the schedule as well as having the market and sponsors available for a Masters 1000 event on grass to make enough financial sense. The financial commitment involved for a 250 or 500 level tournament is much less than for a Masters 1000 event in addition to the venue and player services needed for a Masters event size draw - usually 64 to 96 players. Also, grass is a notoriously demanding surface to maintain so an event like that would require an expert grounds crew to prep and care for it over the life of the event like Wimbledon does. I think one day we will eventually see a Masters event on grass - all the right pieces need to fall into place first before it can happen. I wouldn't be surprised if someone like Federer took on a challenge like that after he retires, given his affinity for the surface.

Answer 2

There are quite a few reasons for this.

1. The ATP season is already very long, starting from January and ending in November. So, players only get a month to recover which is very taxing on their body. A new tournament will only add more days to the playing schedule. Players like Nadal have expressed their dissatisfaction of a long season.

2. When will it be held? For a Grass masters tournament to be held, it should be either held a couple of weeks before Wimbledon or after it. Obviously, it doesn't make much sense nor is it very appealing for a Grass masters tournament to be held after the most prestigious tournament of grass. Note that the analogy of hard court tournaments being held after US Open doesn't hold water here because there's the ATP world tour finals after US Open too. If you hold it two weeks before Wimbledon, then, to you have to push Wimbledon back by 2 weeks which might not seem to be much but it adds an extra fortnight to the players' playing schedule. Now, due to the infamous British climate, the ideal playing conditions will not be seen if Wimbledon moves to August.

3. The most important reason, according to me, is that grass courts are notoriously difficult and costly to maintain. It's understandable that tournaments aren't willing to invest in Grass courts, rather preferring to have the easy-to-maintain hard courts.

So, despite how "fair" it may sound, Masters tournament in grass courts is not happening in the near future.