Clay court

Court Philippe Chatrier at Stade Roland Garros in Paris during the 2006 French Open.

A clay court is one of many different types of tennis court. Clay courts are made of crushed shale, stone or brick. The red clay is slower than the green, or Har-Tru "American" clay. The French Open uses clay courts, making it unique among the Grand Slam tournaments.

Clay courts are more common in Continental Europe and Latin America than in the United States, Canada or Britain. In the United States, courts made of green clay, also known as "rubico", are often called "clay", but are not made of the same clay used in most European and Latin American countries. Although less expensive to construct than other types of tennis courts, the maintenance costs of clay are high as the surface must be rolled to preserve flatness. The water content must also be balanced; green courts are often sloped in order to allow water run-off.^[1]

Play

Clay courts favor the "full western grip" for more topspin. "Clay-courters" generally play in a semicircle about 1.5 to 3 metres behind the baseline.

Clay courts are considered "slow", because the balls bounce relatively high and more slowly, making it more difficult for a player to deliver an unreturnable shot. Points are usually longer as there are fewer winners. Therefore, clay courts heavily favor baseliners who are consistent and have a strong defensive game, which has allowed players such as Rafael Nadal, Björn Borg, Chris Evert, and Justine Henin to find success at the French Open.

Clay court players use topspins to throw off their opponents. Movement on gravel courts is very different from movement on any other surface. Playing on clay often involves the ability to slide into the ball during the stroke, as opposed to running and stopping like on a hard or grass court. Players who excel on clay courts but struggle to replicate the same form on fast courts are known as clay-court specialists.

Clay courts are unique in that the ball bounce leaves an impression in the ground, which can help determine whether a shot was in or out. Critics of red clay courts point to the constant need to wet them down, problems renewing the surface if it dries out, and the damage caused to clothing and footwear through stains. All clay courts, not just red clay, tend to cause a build-up of clay on the bottom of the shoes of the players, needing constant removal.

Types of clay

There are six different types of clay:

Red clay

Almost all red "clay" courts are made not of natural clay but of crushed brick that is packed to make the court. The crushed brick is then covered with a topping of other crushed particles. This type of surface does not absorb water easily and is the most common in Europe and Latin America. The French Open is played on a red clay court at Stade Roland Garros. True natural clay courts are rare because they take two to three days to dry. A good example of natural red clay can be seen at the Frick Park Clay Courts in Pittsburgh, a public facility of six red clay courts that has been in continual use since 1930.^[2]

Green clay

Maria Sharapova during the 2008 Family Circle Cup played on green clay

Green clay, Har-Tru or "American" clay, is similar to red clay, the differences being that it is crushed basalt rather than brick, making the surface slightly harder and faster. Green clay is packed to make the subsurface. It is then covered with a topping. These clay courts can be found in all 50 of the United States but are located primarily in the Eastern and Southern states. In parts of the gulf coast region of the Southeast, green clay courts are often referred to as "rubico".

There is one WTA tournament played on green Har-Tru clay courts in 2015: the Family Circle Cup in Charleston, South Carolina. Earlier there was also the MPS Group Championships in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, but that tournament ended in 2010.

Maroon clay

Maroon clay is similar to green clay. There is one ATP tournament played on maroon Har-Tru clay courts since 2008: the U.S. Men's Clay Court Championships in Houston, Texas.

Yellow clay

Yellow clay is similar to red clay. The ATP Challenger Tour event Copa Sevilla in Seville, Spain is played on this surface.

Grey clay

Grey clay is made of natural grey clay from the ground. It needs to be kept moist and can turn to powder if dry. The surface is scattered with small stones to aid in sliding.

Blue clay

Rafael Nadal on the blue clay of 2012 Madrid Masters.

Former tennis pro, entrepreneur and owner of the Madrid Masters tournament Ion Țiriac introduced a new blue clay surface for the 2012 edition of the tournament. This controversial change has been grudgingly accepted on the players' side.^[3] Already in 2009, one of the outer courts had been made of the new material for the players to test it ahead of its 2012 implementation. Manuel Santana, the Open's current director, has assured that aside from the color the surface keeps the same properties as the traditional red clay. Although Țiriac claims that his only motivation was the improvement of the viewing of the match, both for the naked eye and on television, critics have suggested that Țiriac might have been motivated by the fact that blue happens to be the principal color of the titular sponsor of the tournament, the Spanish insurance giant Mutua Madrileña. This year's blue clay courts in Madrid were more slippery compared to traditional red clay, but it is not possible to know whether this depends on the color or on other causes (like depth, compression, thinness of the particles).^[4]

By winning the Madrid Masters on May 13, 2012, Roger Federer and Serena Williams became the first players to win a tournament on Blue Clay.

En tout cas

A crushed brick surface was introduced by a British firm, En Tout Cas, in 1909, to address the drainage problem of the clay surface.^[5] En tout cas, also known as "fast-dry", or "continental clay", court surfaces spread through Europe in the 1920s. An en tout cas court plays similarly to clay despite its considerably more granular appearance. The crushed brick surface allowed more water to run through the surface of the court drying the surface more quickly after a rain. In France, Spain and Italy "fast-dry" surfaces were generally shallower, consisting of powdered brick or red sand, making these courts appear more like natural clay surfaces.^[6] In the 1930s, En-Tout-Cas courts were used for the Davis Cup and the French Open. In Victoria, Australia, clay-type courts are predominantly En Tout Cas.^[7]

Players

Serena Williams, pictured here at the 2013 French Open, is one of two active female players (the other being Maria Sharapova) to have won the French Open more than once, having won in 2002 and 2013.

Currently, the most successful male player on clay is Rafael Nadal, winner of nine French Open men's singles titles. Since his debut in 2005, he has only ever lost once at the tournament – in 2009, when he was beaten by Swedish player Robin Söderling in the fourth round in four sets. Nadal holds the record for the longest winning streak by any male player on a single surface in the Open era: 81 clay court wins between April 2005 and May 2007. (Note: in the pre-open era Tony Wilding was unbeaten on clay from May 1910 to June 1914, 36 clay court tournaments, so his total is likely to be much higher than Nadal's).

The most successful female player on clay currently is Serena Williams, who won the French Open twice, in 2002 and 2013. In the latter year, Williams went undefeated throughout the entire clay court season, winning five titles on the surface.^[8][9]

Other successful clay court players include Margaret Court, Chris Evert, Justine Henin, Guillermo Vilas, Björn Borg, Ivan Lendl, Mats Wilander, Monica Seles, Steffi Graf, Arantxa Sánchez Vicario, and Gustavo Kuerten.

Henin is tied with Helen Wills Moody among women for most consecutive sets won at Roland Garros, at 40 consecutive sets (from 2005–2010) but Henin holds the record in the Open Era.

Justine Henin and Monica Seles both hold the record for the number of consecutive French Open titles won at 3 (1990-1992 for Seles and 2005-2007 for Henin), although Seles was prevented from participating in the 1993 French Open due to her stabbing incident and Henin did not participate in the 2008 French Open due to her sudden retirement mere weeks before the tournament.

Chris Evert holds the record for longest winning streak on clay for either gender in the Open era: from August 1973 to May 12, 1979, she won 125 consecutive clay court matches. During this time Evert skipped 3 French Opens 76-78, to participate in World Team Tennis. (Note: in the pre-open era, between 1919 and 1926, Suzanne Lenglen played about 250 singles matches on clay, winning all of them in straight sets)

Thomas Muster is also considered a successful clay court player. Although he only won the French Open once, 40 out of his 44 career singles titles were won on clay.

Guillermo Vilas holds the record for most titles won on clay in the Open era, with 49 trophies, only one French Open. It is thought that Jaroslav Drobný won around 90 Clay court titles in the pre-open era. Tony Wilding also was a prolific winner on Clay. He won 77 clay titles.

Clay-court specialist

Rafael Nadal is known as The King of Clay

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

Due in part to advances in racquet technology, today's clay-court specialists are also known for employing long, winding groundstrokes that generate heavy topspin, strokes which are less effective when the surface is faster and the balls don't bounce as high. Clay-court specialists tend to slide more effectively on clay than other players. Many of them are also very adept at hitting the drop shot, which can be effective because rallies on clay courts often leave players pushed far beyond the baseline. Additionally, the slow, long rallies require a great degree of mental focus and physical stamina from the players.

The definition of "clay-court specialist" has varied, with some placing players such as Thomas Muster, Sergi Bruguera, Gustavo Kuerten, and Juan Carlos Ferrero in that category, even though these players have won tournaments (including Masters Series events) on other surfaces. However, since these players won major titles only at the French Open, they are sometimes labeled as such. Other players, such as Sergi Bruguera, Albert Costa and Gastón Gaudio were French Open champions who won all or very nearly all of their career titles on clay. Among female players, there have been very few whose best results were confined exclusively to clay. Virginia Ruzici, Anastasia Myskina, Iva Majoli, Sue Barker, Ana Ivanovic and Francesca Schiavone are the only female players to have won major titles at only the French Open since the beginning of the tennis open era in 1968. Ivanovic had previously lost to Maria Sharapova in the final of the 2008 Australian Open, which employs plexicushion, before going on to win the French Open in that same year.

In recent years clay courters have attempted to play better on other surfaces^[10] with some success. Ferrero reached the US Open Final in 2003,^[11] the same year he won the French Open, and has also won hardcourt tournaments.^[12] Nadal was considered a clay court specialist until he reached five Wimbledon finals on grass, won the Australian Open on hardcourt in 2009, won the Olympic singles gold medal on hardcourt in 2008, completed his career Grand Slam at the 2010 US Open, and won nine Masters titles on hardcourts, in addition to his record-breaking nine French Open titles, winning streak of 81 consecutive matches on clay, and undefeated record on hard courts in 2013 until the China Open late in the year.^[13] Sara Errani, who made her only Grand Slam singles final appearance to date at the 2012 French Open, where she was defeated by Maria Sharapova,^[14] also reached the quarter-finals and semi-finals of the Australian and US Opens respectively in the same year.^[15]

Professional tournaments played on clay

The professional clay court season comprises many more tournaments than the brief grass court season, but is still shorter than the hard court seasons. There are three district clay court seasons during the year.

The first is the winter clay swing that occurs primarily in February after the Australian Open and before the Indian Wells Masters. It is played exclusively in the South American countries of Argentina, Brazil, and Ecuador. The ATP has four tournaments in this swing, while the WTA only has one - the combined ATP/WTA tournament in Rio de Jenaio.

The second is the long spring clay season that starts in the Americas before moving to mainland Europe and Morocco leading up to the French Open. It is usually played over two months in April and May after the Miami Masters concludes. Unlike the other two clay seasons, for the most part, this swing does not share the majority of its time with simultaneous hard court tournaments.

The third is the brief summer clay season that takes place after Wimbledon. It is entirely in Europe, and usually takes place in July. Near the end of the swing, it competes with the beginning of the US Open Series.

Winter clay season

Spring clay season

Summer clay ceason

See also

• Tennis court
• Grass court

References

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