Is Wimbledon Tennis Tournament Played on Grass Court?

 

Is Wimbledon Tennis Tournament Played on Grass Court?

Yes, you would say, with an air of superior appreciation of tennis.

And, I am here to disabuse you of that notion.

Even though the surface is grass, the tennis played on it, over the past two decades or so (I am being generous here) is not grass–court tennis.

Mark the hyphenated word, “grass–court”. The court is of grass, but hyphenated adjective gives it a different meaning. There is “grass court tennis”, and there is, “grass–court tennis”. Tennis played at Wimbledon in the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club lawns was the latter up to the mid to eighties, even up to early–‘90s (when Pat Cash was among the potential winners). This is how tennis shall be played at Wimbledon, a normative Kantian imperative I have snuck in!

The photos above are video–grabs of tennis being played during the quarter–, semi– and finals of the Wimbledon tournament over the past two or three years.

I request the readers to focus on the “T” (where the centre line and the service lines meet) areas, on either side of the net. Also, where the ball boys and ball girls crouch (you may be able to spot them on the side of the chair umpire) as the golden retrievers do in your backyard, to fetch the balls. The “T” areas have energetic grass and where the retrievers crouch, grass looks very haggard.

In the second week at Wimbledon, and we still see grass in these areas! Is it really Wimbledon? I have my doubts. When players such as the handsome and moustachioed John Newcombe, Stan Smith, Ilie Nastase, Martina Navratilova and of course, the redoubtable John McEnroe played, this area was scraped and scuffed by the second week. (Indeed, it is for the grass to grow, it was given as an excuse, that there was no play on the intervening Sunday. But, the almighty dollar took care of that.) And, that was the mark of grass-court tennis and for this tennis fan, it still is.

These areas would be almost as severely scuffed as the baselines are, and I am not joking.

Players tuned to grass–court tennis knew the perils of balls landing in these areas, even serves–unpredictable bounces. That was one of the known mysteries of grass–court tennis (ask Donald Rumsfeld about these known unknowns!).

Tennis experts have opined that grass–court tennis necessitates a short back–lift of the racquet, merely to be prepared for the surprising uneven bounce. One needs to watch (I have done this) how Martina and McEnroe were consummate artists in this.

Why has this art been consigned to the dustbins? One may say that the grass has been tailored to be slower, meaning the ball lingers on the grass perhaps milliseconds longer. You may have noticed that players would, with three balls in their hands, scrutinize them, discard maybe one or two before going into their service swagger. Why? They want to see which balls have the least fuzz standing up; to reduce friction through the air–faster serves. On slower surfaces! Does not help.

Yet, there is another reason that trumps the above. The racquet heads have a large surface, the sweet spots are larger, and the premium for getting to the ball at the net is almost vanishingly small. If the ball makes contact slightly off the sweet spot, the player does not lose much. People gasp when they see a player going up and down the court chasing returns from her opponent; I have a thing for you–do the same going sideways and forward at the net when your volleys are returned at blinding speed. You would do a double-gasp if only you noticed it.

Lendl, facing McEnroe, encountered this once and could not help himself applauding. Lendl applauding his nemesis? Yes, it happened. The speed at which McEnroe responded to Lendl, who changed hitting the ball to the empty forehand of McEnroe saw his down-the line passing shot drop-volleyed behind him! This is unforgettable, and McEnroe did not have a large–head racquet. That is the ultimate talent in net play which large-head racquets have made unnecessary. Very sad.

I am not a Luddite, in any matter. I am merely regretting that one piece of exquisite art is being lost, only to be replaced by a common man’s squiggles.

Please do not call Wimbledon tennis match a grass–court contest. It is not. I hope I have convinced you.

Raghuram Ekambaram