Grass court

Roger Federer playing on the grass court (centre court) at the 2006 Wimbledon Championships

A grass court is one of the four different types of tennis court. Grass courts are made of rye grass in different compositions depending on the tournament. Wimbledon, with 100 percent rye grass, is considered to be slower than other grass courts such as Queen's in London, and 's-Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands.

Although 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 need to be reseeded every year, and (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 there are still a few others remaining elsewhere in the world.

Play

Because the court is often slippery, the ball often skids and bounces low, rarely rising above knee height, while retaining most of its speed, and, in addition, there are often bad bounces. Therefore, players must reach the ball faster, and, as a result, the fast, low bounces keep the rallies short; therefore, speed is rewarded on grass. As a result, on grass, the serve and return play a huge part in determining the outcome of the point, so it is very important to hold serve. Since points tend to be short, it is important to keep good focus, because any lapse of concentration can lead to a service break.

Consequently, most grass courts heavily favour serve and volleyers who are more aggressive and willing to sacrifice points in order for more winners overall. Serve and volleyers make it a target to finish the points off quickly, and allow the ball to bounce as little as possible on their side of the net. Serve and volley players take advantage of the surface by serving the ball (usually a slice serve because of its effectiveness on grass), and then running to the net to cut off the return of serve, leaving their opponent with little time to reach the low-bouncing, fast-moving ball. Therefore, it is important to move in after the serve or the short/mid-court ball, and win the point with a volley or overhead. In addition, players often hit flatter shots to increase power, and allow the ball to travel faster after and before the ball hits the ground.

Movement on grass courts is somewhat different from movement on any other surface. Even the way a foot lands on the grass is rather different from the full-weight of landing and sliding on clay. Also, the slipperiness demands using a lot of small adjustment steps to get in to the correct position. Players will probably need to lower their centre of gravity to get down to the low or bad bounce. However, playing on grass is easier on the knees due to it being a natural surface, but it cannot be slid upon à la clay. Quick adjustments in the swing pattern and footwork are constantly needed, so any movement or co-ordination weaknesses will show up immediately. In addition, most grass court players also succeed on hardcourts, although there are some exceptions.

Players

Historically, there have been seven outstanding grass players in the open era: Roger Federer, Pete Sampras, Steffi Graf, Martina Navratilova, Björn Borg, Venus Williams, and Billie Jean King. All have won at least 5 Wimbledon singles championships; Navratilova won 9, Sampras and Graf each won 7. Other players who have been relatively successful at Wimbledon are Boris Becker, John McEnroe, Chris Evert, and Serena Williams. Pete Sampras is lauded by many tennis analysts as the greatest grass-court player of all time.He has won 7 Wimbledon singles titles in 8 years from 1993 through 2000 losing for the only time in between in 1996 quarter finals.The most successful male player currently is Roger Federer, a six-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 41 consecutive wins at Wimbledon alone. The most successful female player currently is Venus Williams, winning five out of her eight Wimbledon finals appearances (losing the remaining three to her sister Serena Williams) and achieving 3 titles in the ladies' doubles.

Grass-court specialist

A grass-court specialist is a tennis player who excels on grass courts but does not perform to the same standard on hard courts, clay courts or other surfaces. The term is generally only applied to professional players on the ATP and WTA tours, rather than to average players.

A common feature of grass court specialists is their ability to serve and volley. A serve-and-volley player is at a distinct advantage on a grass court because his or her service is quickened enough to force the receiver to handle it quite defensively rather than aggressively, as can be the case on a slower surface. Their effectiveness at the net is therefore greatly improved. Grass court specialists are in direct contrast to clay court specialists, and the two differing styles (and players) generally do poorly on the other surface.

The term "grass court specialist" is used somewhat less often than "hard-court specialist" and much less often than "clay-court specialist", because fewer players meet the description.

Some examples of prominent past and present players who are frequently referred to as grass court specialists are: Steffi Graf, Martina Navartilova, Pat Cash, Tim Henman, Feliciano Lopez, Nicolas Mahut and Mario Ančić. While rarely referred to as grass court specialists, Boris Becker, Stefan Edberg, Pete Sampras, Venus Williams, Jana Novotná, Roger Federer and Lleyton Hewitt have all had their best results on grass.

Professional tournaments played on grass

The professional grass court season is very short, consisting only of Wimbledon, three weeks of tournaments in Britain and Europe leading up to it, and the Hall of Fame Championships in the United States the week after.

Grand Slam

• Wimbledon (Wimbledon, London, England, UK)

ATP

• AEGON Championship (Queen's Club, London, England, UK)
• Gerry Weber Open (Halle, Germany)
• AEGON International (Eastbourne, England, UK)
• UNICEF Open ('s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands)
• Campbell's Hall of Fame Tennis Championships (Newport, Rhode Island, USA)

WTA

• AEGON Classic (Edgbaston, Birmingham, UK)
• AEGON International (Eastbourne, England, UK)
• Ordina Open ('s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands)

ATP Challenger/ITF Women's Tour

• AEGON Trophy (Nottingham, England, UK)
• AEGON Nottingham Challenge (Nottingham, England, UK)

See also

• Tennis court