Outdoor tennis: clay, grass and hard courts

Indoor tennis halls are emptying as queues grow for outdoor courts. With the 2019 outdoor season underway, it is time to prepare the clay, grass and hard courts.

These are the surfaces used in Grand Slam tournaments. Many players see the French Open as the start of the outdoor season, although the year’s first Grand Slam, the Australian Open, takes place in January, during the Australian summer. Here is a look at the upcoming championships and the differences between their surfaces.

The French Open on clay

The French Open is an annual clay-court tournament in Paris. Rafael Nadal was unquestionably the king of clay going into the 2019 event. In 2018, he won his 11th French Open title and his 17th Grand Slam title overall.

Roger Federer was also making a return to the tournament after skipping the entire clay season for two years to avoid injury.

Clay produces a slower, higher bounce, favoring strong baseline players who put plenty of spin on the ball. Players have to do a great deal of running, jumping and turning. The 2019 championship was scheduled for May 26 to June 9.

Wimbledon on grass

Grass is, in many ways, the opposite of clay. The ball bounces faster and lower, and the surface can become slippery, so players must pay close attention to their footing. Grass courts need more maintenance and are used mainly in professional tennis.

Wimbledon has the world’s best-known grass courts and is the oldest tennis championship still held. The 2019 tournament was scheduled for July 1–14, with new rules. Previously, a deciding fifth set could continue until one player led by two games. In 2019, a tiebreak was introduced at 12–12 in the fifth set to make match duration more manageable. The longest fifth set in the tournament’s history had ended 70–68.

The US Open on hard courts

Hard courts are described in the original article as tennis’s second-most-common surface. They can be used indoors or outdoors and use surfaces such as compressed rubber or acrylic, with similar types of surfacing found in other court sports.

The US Open, the final Grand Slam of the year, uses hard courts. The ball bounces quickly, but the even surface makes placement more predictable. Serena Williams was regarded as the queen of hard courts, although she lost the 2018 US Open final to young Japanese player Naomi Osaka.

Try each surface to discover which you prefer. Most tennis courts in Sweden are clay or hard courts, though you may also find an occasional grass court.