Tennis court surfaces – how they affect play

In our first edition of this article, we explained the ITF classification of tennis court surfaces and how they work. Given that players all over the tours are complaining about the slow conditions weekly now, it is also interesting how this affects play. The Indian Wells Masters just announced a switch in surfaces that should align their courts with the US Open series, and the feedback from pros and pundits was mixed to say the least. So, what plays into playability?

The court speed

As we have learnt, the ITF classifies tennis court surfaces into five categories and most artificial surfaces used today range between 2 and 4 here. As an example, the new Indian Wells surface Laykold is available between MS2 (medium-slow) and MF4 (medium-fast). This, in theory, gives tournaments the chance to adjust with a single manufacturer, according to their unique requirements. The new surface is expected to play relatively similar, as the last year’s court pace index was 36.9 (medium/3) and Miami, which already used Laykold, was 35.5 (medium/3). 

Just to set another example, the European clay courts usually range between 22 and 25 and are categorized within the slow/1 category. A slower court with more friction usually gives a higher bounce with more spin rate but makes it harder to hit through your opponent. This gives an edge to players like Alcaraz or Nadal, who can put spin and construct points to outplay their opponents. Players like Medvedev or Fritz, who like to stick to the baseline and hit from there, will rather profit from low bouncing fast courts, which help with pace and penetration. Some players, such as Djokovic or Sinner, can be equally as punishing on all courts but usually shine on these middle grounds, where their qualities can shine themselves.

Of course, the surface category alone doesn’t control the speed of play. The height of the venue, the climate and whether it is indoors or outdoors, will also play a large role. For example, the Madrid Masters will always play faster than Monte Carlo, as it sits about 600 meters higher in altitude and balls will bounce more from these factors.

Is tennis too slow these days?

Overall, we are seeing more and more players speaking about the slow state of tennis court surfaces these days. This mainly gets credited to the ball situation in many statements, which have become a lot worse since Covid. But did the courts change as well?

For one, the ATP got rid of carpet tournaments due to concerns about injuries, which of course took away one surface that added speed. Then of course, two of the biggest tournaments in the Australian and US Open changed surface manufacturers and especially in Melbourne, this reduced the court speeds significantly. But if we only look at the court pace ratings of surfaces used, the further looks do not support the thesis that every tournament gets slower. There are still venues like Paris that play very fast, and you can see this especially in the autumn hard court swing, where some players shine and others get in trouble usually. So much of the perceived speed might be due to the balls rather than the court material.

Notable court speed ratings 2024:

The Paris Bercy Masters in 2024 was the first time in 10 years, that a surface broke the 45-mark in court pace rating. This shows that tournaments are also listening and try to get faster surfaces back, in order to give a different challenge in modern tennis. Natural surfaces, such as grass and clay, will of course be rather hard to change and keep their respective values.

As a conclusion, in the long-term it seems that surfaces have become more uniform within the medium speed categories and together with the ball quality, tennis has become slower. But within the last 10 years, there was no big further change in court speed. There seems to be even a trend of courts picking up pace again, as in Bercy or now Indian Wells. We will see how this will change the style of tennis and feedback by players for the foreseeable future.