Tennis can be played on four main surfaces: grass, clay, hard, and indoor carpet. Each surface has different characteristics that influence speed and playing style. Grass is the fastest but requires most maintenance, facilitating aggressive serve-and-volley games. Clay is slower and favors baseliners, while carpet and hard courts fall in between in terms of speed and suit a variety of playing styles. The surface played on can significantly impact a player's performance and success.

1. What You Need to
Know about Tennis
Court Surfaces
Rachael Hesling

2. What You Need to Know about Tennis
Court Surfaces
 Most people are aware that tennis is played on a variety of different court
surfaces, but not everyone realizes just how much the surface can impact a
player’s game. In fact, surface type is one of the most important factors in a
player’s performance; that’s because each court surface has different
characteristics that greatly influence speed and style of play. This is why some
professional tennis players lead the pack on one particular type of court, but
rarely excel when playing on other surfaces. For example, despite his 14 Grand
Slam titles, the legendary Pete Sampras never won a major tournament played
on clay courts.
 Today, there are four main types of tennis court surfaces: grass, clay, hard
surface, and carpet or indoor surface. Read on for an overview of the details,
pros, and cons of each type.

3. Grass
 The fact that the courts at Wimbledon, the home of
perhaps the most prestigious Grand Slam tournament,
are grass courts gives a good idea of the status of this
surface in the tennis world. Today, grass courts are
associated almost exclusively with the professional
circuit; because so much work is needed to keep
grass surfaces in peak condition (reseeding, watering,
mowing, etc.), it can be too difficult or costly for
smaller establishments or clubs to maintain them.
Grass courts are also not well suited to regions that
get a lot of rain, as the grass can become too slippery
and the ground too waterlogged for effective play.
 Despite the upkeep required, grass courts are prized
by strong players for the speed of play they
facilitate. Grass is the fastest surface used in tennis
because the grass lets the ball slide easily; moreover,
the low bounce capacity of grass suits players with
strong serve-and-volley skills who have the ability to
get to the ball quickly. Grass also has the advantage
of being easier on the knee joints due to the softness
of the ground.

4. Clay
 Hit deep—Deep shots into the back of
the court are a key tactic in defeating
the aggressive baseliner, as they will
consistently hit winners if balls are
delivered near the service line.
 Vary your shots—Aggressive baseliners
are at their strongest when they get a
consistent rhythm of shots from their
opponent. Prevent this by varying the
height and spin of your balls. Mixing up
high bouncing shots with lower, slicing
shots will keep the aggressive baseliner
on their toes and stop them from
getting into a comfortable groove.
 Bring them to the net—As aggressive
baseliners don’t like to come to the
net, forcing them to do just that is an
important tactic. Mix in drop shots that
give them no choice but to come
forward and use their weaker volley.

5. Indoor courts
 The prestigious Grand Slam tournaments
may all be held outdoors, but indoor tennis
lets amateur players enjoy the game year
round. To accommodate indoor tennis,
particularly at facilities that are used for
other purposes and not exclusively for
tennis, carpet surfaces are most commonly
used.
 “Carpet” in this case refers to any kind of
removable surface material that is used on a
court; for example, indoor arenas typically
use a thick synthetic mat, backed with
rubber, that can be easily rolled up and
removed when the court is not in use for
tennis. The shock-absorbing qualities of
carpet surfaces reduce knee and ankle
stress. The speed of the court generally
depends on the type and combination of
materials used in the covering surface.

6. Hard courts
 In widespread use at tennis clubs and sports
centers worldwide, as well as at the Australian
Open and the US Open, the “hard courts”
category covers a variety of surfaces made of
different combinations of materials like asphalt,
concrete, or acrylic. Hard courts are typically
topped with a layer of padding and then covered
with paint mixed with sand; the more sand, the
slower the resulting surface. This type of court
can be used for either indoor or outdoor play.
 Hard courts are usually considered by players to
be the most “democratic” of all court surfaces.
They are not as fast as grass courts but not as
slow as clay courts, and their flat, uniform
surface removes much of the unpredictability
associated with grass and clay. This neutrality
makes hard courts a good choice for a broad
range of player styles. Modern hard courts also
have high shock absorption capacity, making
them much less rough on the body than earlier
versions of this court type.