A few weeks ago I watched some old matches of James Blake including encounters against Kiefer (Vienna 2002), Agassi (Washington 2002), Safin (Hopman Cup 2004) and Moya (Indian Wells 2003) and it is quite obvious that today's game is far slower than it was then. James was able to generate direct winners off the forehand wing, whereas currently he has to fire his forehand at least two or three times to end the point. I just wonder whether his shots are less powerful now but looking at the shot and serve speeds it is probably not the reason. He uses the same frame as back then in 2002 or 2003, therefore it shouldn't be blamed on the technology of rackets. So what's the main reason - the balls or changes in surface? Or maybe James game is simply slower?
It does annoy me that the like's of Wimbledon is now a slow surface. I don't think all court's need to be speeded up, just some of them. USO & Wimbly should be fast surface. Having all the big tournament's with slow surface (apart from WTF) is simply not fair on the guys on tour who's game suits faster courts. There should be more range.
Well the good news is that not every player can sustain very high levels of play on such slow, grinding surfaces which is probably why Nadal wants a much shorter season. Unfortunately for him, the financial commitments and interests of the ATP, players and tournaments far outweigh his needs so if he wants to stay at the top he's going to have to keep grinding it out on that plexicushion which is slower than RG.
It all depends on how advancements in sports science (hyperbaric chambers, PRP, gene therapy) can keep up with these slow surfaces. I have a feeling that the ATP is going to start panicking when guys like Federer and Nadal aren't making the SFs and Fs like they used to on super slow hard court. In a way (and I say this jokingly because I like Novak), Djokovic was the best thing that could have happened to the ATP because then they started to realize that they had swung so far in one direction to favor one player, they never considered that another guy was simply better than him in all respects.
Also heard the bounce has been reduced since there is much much less grit in it than last year. So faster, lower bouncing courts should be a nice change. Good for big hitters.
djokovic humiliated healthy opponents, including fed & nadal, on different surfaces, but he is supposed to be dismissed as a 2nd tier champion?
Lmao
do you see big servers making a dozen semis & finals on faster surfaces since 2002?
roddick, safin, ljubicic, phillippousis, etc.? lol
if djoker had not won 29 titles, federer'd have 90 titles.
what a damn joke.
Wow I forgot about that exho. :lol: Roddick's serve isn't what it used to be and it's never really troubled Roger even at its peak or near its peak, so I don't see him really troubling Roger in that department even on a faster and lower bouncing surface. I don't even see Roddick eking out a tie-break set unless Roger's having a shitty return day as he did in some of the earlier rounds of the previous tournaments.
Wow I forgot about that exho. :lol: Roddick's serve isn't what it used to be and it's never really troubled Roger even at its peak or near its peak, so I don't see him really troubling Roger in that department even on a faster and lower bouncing surface. I don't even see Roddick eking out a tie-break set unless Roger's having a shitty return day as he did in some of the earlier rounds of the previous tournaments.
I dunno about roddick's serve. Does he not get it up in the 140's anymore? I dont know if it's that or that he has a poorer hold game aside from his serve than before. Then there's always the fact that serving 130+ is very common and players see it all the time so it makes it much easier to deal with. Lets also not forget what has happened to grass and most hard courts since 2003+.
Apparently apart from having the power to change California's weather into Hamburg-type conditions, Federer also has the power to speed up the courts. From Nadal: “Maybe next year they’ll be much faster, if Roger says, no? I have already this week a lot of time violation.”
Oh Rafa. Somebody needs to get him that ATP rule book and translate it into Spanish. The time violations are not caused by Roger Federer, they are caused by him exceeding the twenty five seconds allotted by the rules.
Apparently, Infecterer also has the power to make court surfaces faster on the ATP. Who knew?
Kamakshi Tandon and Mats wilander were on the radio and both said Miami's surface is really fast this year...Wilander said its the fast it's been for years!
The way they are describing the courts is a little confusing. Are the courts "fast" as in they went up in court speed classification or are they just faster than normal?
It's Laykold Cushion Plus that they're using and the website says that it can be "adjusted to meet desired court pace" ranging from 2-5. No help there. IW is slow as hell, perhaps the "sources" are saying that Miami is fast only because they came from that blue clay court in the desert.
Doubt that it's a 5, maybe they just custom-mixed it this year to play at a speed of 3 or 4.
Faster courts, for what? More matches to see Raonic and Isner? That final on sunday was so boring. We have fast courts at the enf of the year, we don't need more.
Faster courts, for what? More matches to see Raonic and Isner? That final on sunday was so boring. We have fast courts at the enf of the year, we don't need more.
It is difficult to judge because they are not playing at full gear, but there is no doubt that these courts are still to be considered slow.
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