Surface
There are five types of court surface used in professional play. Each surface is different in the speed and height of the bounce of the ball. The same surface plays faster indoors than outdoors.
- Clay
- Examples are red clay, used at the French Open, and green clay (an example of which is Har-Tru and used mainly in the U.S.). Almost all red clay courts are made not of natural clay but of crushed brick that is packed to make the court. The crushed brick is then covered with a topping of other crushed particles. This type of surface does not absorb water easily and is the most common in Europe and Latin America. Clay courts normally have a slower paced ball and a fairly true bounce with more spin.
- Hard
- Examples of hardcourts are acrylic (e.g. Plexicushion used at the Australian Open, DecoTurf used at the US Open, GreenSet used at the ATP World Tour Finals), asphalt, and concrete. Hardcourts typically have a faster-paced ball with a very true bounce and it is the predominant surface type used on the professional tour.
- Grass
- Grass courts usually have a faster-paced ball, and a more erratic bounce. Grass is used at Wimbledon and until 1974 three of the four Grand Slams (Australian Open, Wimbledon, US Open) were played on grass. In 2001 Wimbledon changed the type of grass to make the courts more durable and thus better able to withstand the wear of the modern game. The new grass causes the ball to bounce higher and slows it down compared to the previous grass type.
- Carpet
- Any form of removable court covering, including carpeting and artificial turf. The bounce can be higher or lower than a hard court. Carpet surface has not been used on the ATP and WTA tour since 2009.
- Wood
- Popular from the 1880s through the first half of the 20th century, wooden surface provides a very low bounce and plays very fast. There are no longer any professional tournaments held on a wooden surface although some tournaments (e.g. Rotterdam Open and Open Sud de France), are played on a wood-based court with an acrylic layer on top.
Read more about this topic: Tennis
Famous quotes containing the word surface:
“We’ve forgotten what it’s like not to be able to reach the light switch. We’ve forgotten a lot of the monsters that seemed to live in our room at night. Nevertheless, those memories are still there, somewhere inside us, and can sometimes be brought to the surface by events, sights, sounds, or smells. Children, though, can never have grown-up feelings until they’ve been allowed to do the growing.”
—Fred Rogers (20th century)
“See how peaceful it is here. The sea is everything. An immense reservoir of nature where I roam at will.... Think of it. On the surface there is hunger and fear. Men still exercise unjust laws. They fight, tear one another to pieces. A mere few feet beneath the waves their reign ceases, their evil drowns. Here on the ocean floor is the only independence. Here I am free.”
—Earl Felton, and Richard Fleischer. Captain Nemo (James Mason)
“Night City was like a deranged experiment in Social Darwinism, designed by a bored researcher who kept one thumb permanently on the fast-forward button. Stop hustling and you sank without a trace, but move a little too swiftly and you’d break the fragile surface tension of the black market; either way, you were gone ... though heart or lungs or kidneys might survive in the service of some stranger with New Yen for the clinic tanks.”
—William Gibson (b. 1948)