[Litotes]

Probably the stand and other objects were build at that time. The drainage system (not sure if its the right word) has changed a lot since that.

My guess is they dig up and rummage the court every now and then so if they would want to quicken the court, they could easily do it.

That's of course possible.

No earthly reason to do so to ward off Pancho, though.

 

[Htom Sirveaux]

Based on facts I'm assuming Madrid's is the fastest due to Rafa's least success there? But overall among Monte Carlo, Madrid, Rome, and the FO how do they rank from fastest to slowest?

This used to be true but the organizers there have taken steps to make the event play more like the rest of the spring Euro clay swing. Not a huge difference between Madrid and Rome at this point especially when a warm sun bakes the clay in Rome.

So yeah, Rome is generally faster than MC. It takes a bit of rain to get Rome to play similarly to an average day in MC.

Hamburg was pretty slow, but low bouncing.

Correct. Not ideal conditions for great tennis but it was probably the best possible preparation for the cool and damp conditions you'll usually see for at least a few days during RG.

 

[Satvan]

Hamburg is the slowest. Philippe chatrier and Madrid are the fastest clay courts. Lenglen, Rome and Montecarlo are slow. Rome used to be quicker about a decade ago.

 

[Sapeod]

Of the big tournaments...Monte Carlo definitely. There may be a smaller tournament somewhere with slower clay though.

 

[Fogmeister]

It's obviously Monte Carlo.

Roland Garros isn't that slow, but the center court has much more room to run, so the players will put more balls in play anyway.

 

[redshift]

For a slow court Wawrinka had many winners there for some reason last year. :lol:

It allows more time for Wawrinka to set up his BH. With his power, the higher bounce doesn't necessarily inhibit his shots from being defenseless.

 

[Fearhand]

For a slow court Wawrinka had many winners there for some reason last year. :lol:

Yes, because he bludgeons the ball. Stan is better on slow courts.

 

[Htom Sirveaux]

For a slow court Wawrinka had many winners there for some reason last year. :lol:

It allows more time for Wawrinka to set up his BH. With his power, the higher bounce doesn't necessarily inhibit his shots from being defenseless.

Yes, power baseliners are pretty much the only players who can regularly hit through the slower courts so those conditions will be favorable to them so long as they're aggressive and in good form like Stan was last year. And a higher bounce actually gets the ball into most power baseliners' strike zones unless they're playing someone who can get the ball up around their shoulders with good topspin.

 

[abraxas21]

MC seems to be the slowest one:

 

[abraxas21]

Then again, tennis differs somewhat across different courts in tennis tournaments.

On clay one of the most extreme cases seems to be Philippe Chatrier with some players going as far as to sustain RG's PC is a whole different tournament compared to the rest of the courts.

 

[yellow grass]

I would think humidity doesn't make courts slower (contrary to common perception humid air is less dense than dry air). Humidity does make players slower though (players get slow as body heat can't be regulated as easily)

 

[abraxas21]

I would think humidity doesn't make courts slower (contrary to common perception humid air is less dense than dry air). Humidity does make players slower though (players get slow as body heat can't be regulated as easily)

Then again, high humidity would make a heavier ball, right?

 

[WawrinkaFan1102]

I miss Hamburg. Played the most like Roland Garros!

 

[toasino]

I think it was intentional. The French Open itself was intentionally designed to blunt the power of Pancho Gonzales.

I seriously doubt that as clay was Pancho's least favorite surface. He never came close to winning the French and only reached one French Pro final on clay, losing to Rosewall. Rome has always been faster than Paris and MC, from what I have read.

 

[Servebot]

Monte Carlo is so slow it feels like sand rather than clay. Powerful shots die as soon as the ball hits the court.