Why the obsession with slower courts on the ATP Tour?
General
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Sean Calvert /
26 February 2012 /
Roger Federer won in Rotterdam last week on an alarmingly slow court
"Since the ATP opted to remove carpet from the tour calendar in 2009 the tour has lost some variety and fans who enjoy top serving and great volleying are barely catered for at all."
The courts on the ATP tour are getting slower and slower and the death of the serve/volleyer is nigh. And Sean Calvert isn't happy. Why do any changes to the surfaces men athe courts always to have to get slower and never quicker, he asks.
Last week's ABN AMRO World Tennis Championships was the latest example of a disturbing trend in men's tennis.
The court surface in Rotterdam was traditionally one of the quickest indoor events of the year and it welcomed the bigger servers, volleyers and big hitters with its promise of pace.
However, we were greeted in Rotterdam this year by what appeared to be the same paceless, green, pudding of a court that we saw at the BNP Paribas Masters in Bercy at the end of 2011.
Now, I'm all for the individual tournaments having the right to decide their own speed of surface for whatever reason they see fit, but why is it that they all seem to be heading in the same direction - slower?
I'm not suggesting that all the tournaments should speed up their surfaces by any means, but surely what the game needs is a variety of surfaces to test the players under varying conditions.
I tipped Novak Djokovic in this column to win Wimbledon last year when many were saying that the Serb couldn't play on grass, but I was confident because there's so little difference between grass and hard courts any more.
All Novak had to do to win was to keep the same level that he'd shown all year. He did that and he won. Simple.
And the French Open success formula isn't much different to the others, as we'll surely see in a couple of months' time when the top four seeds will probably be in the last four again.
This week's Open 13 match between Michael Llodra and Albano Olivetti was a rare match-up between two server/volleyers and it was such an unusual sight these days that it was quite refreshing.
But Llodra is still the big outsider of the remaining four in the tournament at around [10.5].
I'm not advocating a return to biff-bang tennis, but at least the Llodras of this world knew that there would be certain tournaments on the calendar where they did have a better chance to use their styles of play to the best effect. Where are those events now?
Since the ATP opted to remove carpet from the tour calendar in 2009 the tour has lost some variety and fans who enjoy top serving and great volleying are barely catered for at all.
The removal of carpet was voted for by the top-50 players on the ATP Tour, but it would be interesting to see if they still feel that way.
Rotterdam and Bercy were two tournaments known for speed and now both
have gone in completely the opposite direction in court speed.
I got in touch with Kate Gordon, the ATP World Tour's Executive Vice President of Marketing and Communications and she confirmed that: "court speeds can be determined by each individual tournament provided the speed fits within the parameters set forth by the Rules of Tennis."
Which essentially means that the tournaments can do pretty much whatever they like.
I also asked Kate if there has been a directive from the ATP to the tournaments, instructing them to slow down the court speeds and she told me: "There is currently no directive to speed up or slow down court speeds, but it is something that we continue to look at, discuss, and monitor."
So, back to the tournaments themselves then, as it appears to be down to them. I got in touch with the ABN AMRO World Tennis Championships and asked about their decision to slow the courts down.
Dimitri Bonthuis from the ABN AMRO Championships explained the reasons thus: "We have changed from [surface speed rating] fast hardcourt 38 to fast hardcourt 25, making the court slower than before. This was done because last year the combination between ball and court simply proved too fast."
Too fast for whom, one wonders? The fans? Well, yes, according to Bonthuis, who continued: "Longer matches and longer rallies, simply meant more tennis, especially during the weekend, when only two matches are scheduled in a session."
And what about the players? What did they think of the new courts? "Almost all players found that the speed of the court was what it should be," Bonthuis said. "Some said it was a bit slow, but not necessary to make any changes."
And there we have the crux of the matter. "Almost all" the players were happy with it. I'm sure we all know the playing style of the ones who weren't.