WIMBLEDON, England -- The International Tennis Federation is seriously considering a major change to the calendar to put Wimbledon back a week and allow more time for players to adjust from clay to grass.

Representatives from both the men's and women's tours and the players organization are in favor, and so far the TV networks see no problems. So the question is: why haven't they done it before?

"It's always been thought of. It's one of the longest issues around," said Bill Babcock, ITF executive director and Grand Slam administrator. "It's always been a difficult process to get all the Grand Slam people together. It's been something that's been thought of for a long time."

Why something is finally being done now remains unclear. But Babcock applauded the fact that everyone concerned now seemed happy to help each other out even though there it unlikely to change before 2004.

"Now progress has been made to get together with the collaboration and effort of the Grand Slams to look at their dates a long time into the future," Babcock said. "It's nice that now Wimbledon is prepared to go later."

The TV people said they were happy to accept a change. The event is screened in Britain by state-owned BBC and in the United States by NBC and TNT.

"Wimbledon is the highlight of our summer sporting schedule and an event that the BBC and its viewers value highly," the Corporation said in a statement. "We will always be looking to devote the same amount of coverage whenever the championships take place."

Moving it back a week, however, could mean a clash with the British Grand Prix Formula One auto race and that might bring the BBC into conflict with its biggest rival, ITV.

NBC said they didn't want to comment on something that hadn't been decided yet while Mark Lazarus, president of Turner Sports, said: "We consider Wimbledon to be the most prestigious tennis tournament in the world and we are excited to be a part of it no matter when it's played."

The players consider the extra week's preparation a boost.

Wimbledon gets hit by boycotts by clay-court stars who have little time to adjust to the totally different playing surface and also believe the seedings policy is biased toward grass-court players.

If there were a three-week gap between the end of the French Open and the start of Wimbledon, that might settle some of their differences.

"I think the schedule needs to be changed around a little bit," said last year's Wimbledon runner-up Pat Rafter, who has played eight straight French Opens before moving on to the All England Club.

"The guys who play all the way through are absolutely knackered before Wimbledon and they realize that Wimbledon is not a good surface for them," he said. "They know they're not going to be successful on grass, so why come?"

Babcock says the world governing body has set up a working group to look into changes to the calendar. It includes players, administrators and Grand Slam officials.

"There are only a couple of weeks in the year when (pre-Wimbledon) grass-court tournaments are played," he said. "The players themselves have been saying that they are concerned that they do not have enough time to adjust on grass.

"It is not a question of changing Wimbledon but rescheduling the entire tennis calendar. At the moment there is not enough space between the French Open and start of Wimbledon. There is a lot of goodwill to make the change. We are committed to getting this done by 2003."

The All England Club also says moving Wimbledon back a week has been looked at for some time.

"The argument is that it would give players the time to recover from the rigorous clay-court circuit and give them more time for practice and to adjust to grass," said All England Club spokesman Johnny Perkins. "Having it start a week later would give a three-week gap and it is something the All England Club is in favor of."