Grass court

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Roger Federer playing on the grass at Centre Court in the 2006 Wimbledon Championships

A grass court is one of the four different types of court on which the sport of tennis, originally known as "lawn tennis", is played. Grass courts are made of grasses in different compositions depending on the tournament.

Although grass courts are more traditional than other types of tennis courts, maintenance costs of grass courts are higher than those of hard courts and clay courts. Grass courts (in the absence of suitable covers) must be left for the day if rain appears, as the grass becomes very slippery when wet.

Grass courts are most common in Britain, although the Northeastern United States also has some private grass courts.

Play style

Because grass courts tend to be slippery, the ball often skids and bounces low while retaining most of its speed, rarely rising above knee height. In addition, there are often bad bounces. As a result, players must reach the ball faster relative to other surfaces, and rallies are likely to be comparatively brief; therefore, speed and power are rewarded on grass. On grass, the serve and return play a major part in determining the outcome of the point, increasing the importance of serving effectively, and maintaining focus in exchanges which can be heavily influenced by lapses in concentration.[1] A grass-court favours a serve and volley style of play.

Players

Serena Williams serving at the 2008 Wimbledon Championships.

Among the most successful players on grass in the Open Era have been Pete Sampras, Steffi Graf, Martina Navratilova, John Newcombe, Björn Borg, Margaret Court, Evonne Goolagong Gawley, Roger Federer, Venus Williams, Serena Williams, Billie Jean King and Chris Evert. All have won at least five grand slam singles titles on grass; Navratilova won twelve, Court won eight, while King, Sampras, Graf, Serena Williams and Federer each won seven. Other players who have been relatively successful on grass during the Open era are Ken Rosewall, Arthur Ashe, Rod Laver, Boris Becker, John McEnroe, Stefan Edberg, Virginia Wade and Novak Djokovic.

Sampras is lauded by many tennis analysts as one of the greatest grass-court players of all time.[2][3][4][5] He won seven Wimbledon singles titles in eight years from 1993 through 2000, with his only loss in that span coming in the 1996 quarterfinals. The most successful male player currently is Roger Federer, a seven-time Wimbledon singles champion. His variety in the shots, speed, footwork, and slices, are his biggest weapons. Before being beaten in 2008 at Wimbledon by Rafael Nadal, Federer had a 65-match winning streak on grass, and 40 consecutive wins at Wimbledon alone.

The most successful female players currently playing are Serena Williams and her sister Venus Williams, with seven and five Wimbledon singles titles respectively. Venus has won five out of her eight Wimbledon finals appearances (losing the remaining three to her sister Serena) and achieving five titles in the ladies' doubles with her sister.

Professional tournaments played on grass

The professional grass court season is comparatively short. Until 2014 it consisted only of Wimbledon, two weeks of tournaments in Britain and continental Europe leading up to it, and the Hall of Fame Tennis Championships in the Newport, Rhode Island, United States the week after. In 2015 it was extended, with an extra week between the French Open and Wimbledon. In the ATP Tour, the Stuttgart Open became a grass court tournament in 2015,[6] and a new grass court tournament is set to start in 2017, a week before Wimbledon.[7] In the WTA Tour Mallorca will host a grass court tournament beginning in 2016.[8]

Summer grass season

ATP WTA
Grand Slam tournaments
ATP World Tour Finals WTA Tour Championships
ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Premier Mandatory & Premier 5
ATP World Tour 500 Premier
ATP World Tour 250 International
Week ATP WTA
Week 1 Stuttgart Open (Stuttgart, Germany) Nottingham Open (Nottingham, United Kingdom)
Rosmalen Grass Court Championships ('s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands)
Week 2 Halle Open (Halle, Germany)
Queen's Club Championships (London, United Kingdom) 		Birmingham Classic (Birmingham, United Kingdom)
Mallorca Open (Majorca, Spain)[9]
Week 3 Nottingham Open (Nottingham, United Kingdom) Eastbourne International (Eastbourne, United Kingdom)
Week 4 Wimbledon (London, United Kingdom)
Week 5
Week 6 Hall of Fame Tennis Championships (Newport, Rhode Island, United States) none

External links

See also

References

  1. ^ "The grass is the star at Wimbledon and this year's Olympic tennis matches". The Washington Post. 4 July 2012.
  2. ^ "Pete Sampras on Grass Tennis Courts". USTA. 28 May 2008.
  3. ^ "Sampras still the best - Murray". Irish Times. 23 June 2009.
  4. ^ "Sampras "walks on water" for Wimbledon win". McCook Daily Gazette. 2 July 1999. p. 7.
  5. ^ Calvin Tomkins (28 June 2010). "Anxiety on the grass". The New Yorker.
  6. ^ "Stuttgart To Make Switch To Grass Courts In 2015". ATP. 29 March 2013.
  7. ^ "ATP calendar 2016-2017-2018" (PDF). ATP. 29 March 2013.
  8. ^ "WTA To Head To Mallorca In 2016". WTA. 9 June 2014.
  9. ^ "New WTA event in Mallorca in 2016 further expands grass court season" (PDF). WTA. 9 June 2014.
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