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Andy Roddick has made no secret of his love of Wimbledon © Getty Images

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Sales of Pimms and strawberries have rocketed this week as the British public enjoys its annual dose of tennis. And a man who loves the month of British grass court tennis almost as much as Sue Barker is world No. 7 Andy Roddick.

Roddick is no stranger to the British fans, having knocked Andy Murray out of the semi-finals at Wimbledon last year. The American has reached the final at the All England Club three times, and on all three occasions has come up short against six-time champion Roger Federer.

Those lucky enough to have a ticket for Centre Court last year were treated to a classic Wimbledon final as the American took on the man who he had beaten just twice in 20 meetings. Federer, having won the French Open for the first time to complete his career Grand Slam, was flying high and on course to return to the No. 1 ranking for the first time in nearly a year. In an intriguing contest, in which Roddick lost his serve only once, Federer edged the match 7-5 6-7(6) 6-7(5) 6-3 14-16, despite winning fewer points.

Like Federer, Roddick makes no secret of his love for Wimbledon. And the 2003 US Open champion believes the grass-court season should be given greater weighting in the tennis calendar.

"I know all the guys who enjoy grass as much as I do wish we had three months of it or even a couple of extra weeks - it gets talked about," Roddick said.

Of the 32,750 ranking points available on the ATP Tour, just 3,250 of those are up for grabs on grass. Of course the climax of the grass season, and for many the highlight of the tennis season, is the two weeks of Wimbledon, but Roddick believes the grass season deserves more ranking points.

With Queen's and Halle events, worth 250 rankings points each, kicking off the day after the French Open final, the transition from clay to grass is a swift one. Then the following week players can play at Eastbourne or 's-Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands, and they are also both the lowest-tier of ATP ranking tournaments. In the lead up to Wimbledon a player can win a maximum of just 500 points.

Compare that to Rafael Nadal's recent domination of the clay-court season. Having won three back-to-back Masters tournaments before regaining the French Open title for the fifth time, the newly-crowned world No. 1 amassed an impressive 5000 points.

Meanwhile, in the run up to the US Open, a player could pick up 2500 points in Washington, Toronto or Cincinnati alone.

"There is the US Open series and a two-and-a-half month lead-up, there are 1000 on the line every other week for two months," Roddick said. "But we have a couple of 250s before Wimbledon, so for me that is a jarring issue.

Andy Murray gets into the Wimbledon spirit © Getty Images

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"I would love a 1000 tournament in the lead up to Wimbledon. I think there should be a 500 tournament at least.

"The ATP is pretty staunch in their rules and I can respect that, but I think you should rate all surfaces equally. Obviously there is a lot of business logistical stuff behind the scenes, but I do think that is a realistic idea; I don't think it is ridiculous or far-fetched.

"As much as my opinion is extremely biased you are going to get a lot of opinion which is also extremely biased against more time on grass. But discrepancy between tournaments that is not opinion - that is just facts."

Adding more grass-court tournaments to the schedule would require pushing the date of Wimbledon back by a couple of weeks, which would almost certainly meet resistance from the conservative All England Club. Plus the small matter of getting the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) to even consider the changes.

Roddick admits getting more grass tournaments would not be easy, but praised the British public for their unwavering dedication to tennis.

"Tennis is a business at the end of the day and you are going to go where you can generate a following," he said. "But I also think London has proven itself.

"It is 8.30 at night and Centre Court [at Queen's Club] is still three-quarters full for a doubles match. As a spectator at the Masters final last November there was no question that London supports its tennis."

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