With the two best tennis players in the world, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, about to contest the Wimbledon Mens Final in London, there has been a lot of discussion about the way different surfaces suit different players. Federer for example, is arguably the best tennis player in the world on grass and therefore goes into the final today as favourite, whereas it is well-known that the young Spaniard Nadal prefers a harder surface like clay, and is having to change his game to adapt to grass – concentrating more on his serve and closing in at the net more than he usually would.
In tennis the distinction tends to be between a ‘fast’ court and a ’slow’ court – on a fast court (like the grass of Wimbledon for example) the ball tends not to bounce up as high, favouring big servers and serve-and-volley players, whilst on a slower court (like the clay of Roland Garros in Paris) the ball will bounce higher thus favouring baseliners, especially those with long strokes. (more…)
