[Chloe le Bopper]

Someone asked me to do this a while ago, and I didn't.

So here it is. I took this from The Official ATP Site

I also manually counted and am not in the mood to do it again. If someone sees an error, please correct it and I will adjust accordingly.

I grouped them into 'Specific Surface' stats, vs 'General Surface'. General surface does not take into account the location (indoor or outdoor). Specific does.



Specific Surface - Number of Tournaments

Outdoor Hard - 24
Indoor Hard - 11
Indoor Carpet - 5
Outdoory Clay - 24
Grass - 6

Total - 70


Specific Surface - Percentage

Outdoor Hard - 34.3
Indoor Hard - 15.7
Indoor Carpet - 7.1
Outdoory Clay - 34.3
Grass - 8.6


General Surface - Percentage

Hard - 50.0
Carpet - 7.1
Clay - 34.3
Grass - 8.6

 

[Chloe le Bopper]

So after doing this, it became clear to me why so many people are biased towards clay.

Quite cleary it composes most of the tour, and players can easily coushion their results based on this surface, unlike on others.

There are just FAR too many slow court tournaments on the calender.

 

[claudine140]

outdoor hard, isn't that a fast court???

 

[Chloe le Bopper]

I was being wickedly sarcastic (though it was obvious).

Yes, hard is fast. Relatively anyhow.

 

[Scotso]

We need more claycourt events

Get rid of the grass ones

Actually that's not true. Grass is starting to grow on me since Wimby 2002

 

[TennisHack]

As I've said before, it saddens me how hard courts have taken over the game. Of course I'm biased as I say this, because clay is my favorite surface :angel: And it makes PMac & Cliffy (PattyMac especially) seem like fools when they complain about how a player has "tailored his game" to the hard court surface. Well of course he has, that's what he plays on 50% of the time!

 

[RogiFan]

Thanks for that Rebecca; I was wondering about that myself! What about more GRASS tournaments? I actually find the outdoor hard season gets a bit boring towards the USO, and esp. the USO!

I love watching clay matches -- they're so different. I notice some players (even the baseliners) are starting to mix it up more on that surface and that makes it more interesting and varied.

Grass is great but players desperately need more match play before Wimby. If Pat returns, I'll be glued to the TV (that is, IF they show him over the usual suspects who shall remain nameless!) -- his S&V game is a thing of beauty (so is he!).


I'm surprised there are SO many clay tournaments... I guess I forget ones like Acapulco (yay, Moya!) and Houston (is it clay too? green clay? weird... not REAL clay! do any Spaniards play it?).

 

[Chloe le Bopper]

The green clay tournaments - I didn't separate those, since they weren't separated on the list I took that info from. Maybe later, meh.

Anyhow, as for wether or not the Spaniards play it - I can't talk for all of them but any of the good Spaniards are in Europe playing with the "big boys", not hiding away from the best clay courters in the world by playing in the United States

I am certain Ferrero has never played there, and have never heard of Alex , Albert, Carlos and gang every playing there either.

Maybe early in their careers, but i would be surprised. Why would they fly to houston to play on green clay when they could get wild cards in places like Barcelona?

 

[Chloe le Bopper]

Just to give a good indication of who plays Houston ...

Is that the one Roddick has won twice in a row now? Roddick, who lost in the first round of Roland Garros to baseline extrordinaire Wayne Arthurs?

I do recall that Roddick beat Coria either at that tournament, or the one in the US that is played on red clay. Either way, Coria was hardly back to his former self, since he had been back from suspension for only a short while.

 

[ys]

Again this nonsense about fast and slow.. What is fast surface and what is slow? Define please, in terms of physics..

Is RA fast? Why?
Is grass fast? Why?

 

[Chloe le Bopper]

What non sense about fast and slow? I merely broke them up by the parameters given to me.

I did not break them up into FAST and SLOW, for good reason. Because it is a bitch to define, and causes too many arguements. Some surfaces, like rebound ace, can play fast OR slow.

My comments about slow was being a smart ass to those who complain there are too many clay tournaments.

 

[Static]

2002: Andy's path to the title

Houston, TX, U.S.A.
International Series, 4/22/2002, O, Clay , Draw: 32

R32 Russell, Michael (USA ) 125 6-1 6-2
R16 Calatrava, Alex (ESP ) 82 6-2 6-1
Q Blake, James (USA ) 36 6-2 6-4
S Coria, Guillermo (ARG ) 109 6-3 2-6 6-2
W Sampras, Pete (USA ) 25 7-6(11) 6-3

 

[Chloe le Bopper]

When I say that hard is relatively fast - I mean relative to clay. Which was once again, going with the smart comment that I made after my first post.

 

[Static]

Well now I feel absolutely irrelevant ... ignore my last post

 

[Chloe le Bopper]

No that is okay - someone asked who played there, and that showed

American's, and struggling players who either can't make the european events, or aren't ready to play them.

 

[kalforpete]

Becca,

I don't know if I completely agree with your answer. Yes, American's definitely play Houston. Most of them take advantage of playing on red clay that is suppose to be the same as RG and have an extra week at home before having to start out on tour out of the country. As for struggling players playing it, I'm not so sure. It's definitely not made up completely of your top 30-50 ranked players but there are some good clay court players that played Houston.

Here are all the list of the players that played Houston:

Tommy Haas, Alex Kim, Taylor Dent, Wayne Arthurs, Morejon, Coria, Saretta, Ferreira, Roddick, M. Russell, Capalik, Calatrava, Chang, Knowle, Delgado, Blake, Todd Martin, Hirigoyen, Burgsmuller, Davydenko, Lee Martin, Puerta, Vacek, Sampras, Gambill, Pless, Ilie, Okun, Bob Bryan, H.T. Lee, Youzhny, and Agassi.

 

[Dissident]

y_s - You want physics. I offer you a test: go to the courts and play. You will FEEL which is slow and which is fast. Its goddamned obvious.
The balls slip on grass, and go faster once it touches the court - FAST!
The balls go high and lose speed on clay when they bounce - SLOW!

There are variations, so when you want to be a smartass, you will use the specifics. Clay can be faster when its dry and the weather is too hot. If you put more brick over it, it gets slower.
The hard courts can vary as well, because the rebound ace is slightly "squishier" as some players say. And what goes below, as there are many levels of different materials in each court, also interferes.
But overall, clay is slow, and pretty much all the others are fast.

 

[Dissident]

Oh, and btw, I guess I heard Houston was played in red clay last year

 

[kalforpete]

Hitman,

Houston is red clay. They reportedly flew in the same red clay that is used at RG when they set the tourney back up a couple of years ago.

 

[kalforpete]

Hitman,

Here is a description of Houston from the US Clay Court Championship (Houston) site.

------------------

With 46 tennis courts, Westside Tennis Club is one of the largest tennis centers in the country. Ten indoor courts ensure tennis play in inclement weather conditions. The lighted outdoor courts enable play day or night. The 4 red clay courts are the only installation in the United States identical to the courts at Roland Garros. Westside's grass courts were designed and installed by David Kimpton of the Queens Club in England. The Rebound Ace courts are indoors to assure the best endurance of this surface. The Australian Open surface allows play similar to hard courts, but with the benefits of a soft surface to your muscles and joints. At Westside Tennis Club you are offered the most diverse playing surfaces in the United States.