Clay Court

Clay court is a tennis court with a clay surface or a synthetic surface that resembles clay.

At the end of the 19th century, William Renshaw was giving tennis lessons on grass courts in Cannes, but due to the sun, the grass tended to burn and lose its lustre. To protect the grass, Renshaw decided to cover it with a thin layer of red powder which was obtained from grinding down rejects from the clay pots manufactured in the town of Vallauris in the south of France. And thus, the clay court was born.

Clay courts are more commonly seen in Europe and South America. There is a variety of clay tennis courts with the color of the court as an indication of the type of clay used. What we now know as ‘clay’ is actually made up of a number of different substances. At the French Open, the biggest clay-court event of the lot, red brick dust, crushed white limestone, a coal residue called ‘clonker’ and crushed gravel are combined to make the red clay surface so well known in Paris and across Europe.

A European ‘red’ clay court is generally slow, the slowest surface in the sport, on which the clay grips the ball and slows it down. At the same time, the court is more receptive to spin, so players who use heavy topspin can make the ball rear up and bounce higher than on other surfaces. In the United States, a different form of clay court known by its trade name ‘Har-Tru’ is commonly used, with the crushed basalt resulting in a slightly faster, harder surface, but one that many players find very difficult to move on. Gray tennis courts are made from natural clay from the ground.

Think clay courts and the mind wanders to images of the likes of Novak Djokovic sliding into his shots, timing the slide perfectly to hit the ball on the stretch but immediately beginning his movement back to the centre of the court. The best clay-courters make sliding look easy but others can look all at sea, skidding through the ball and battling to stand up. Maria Sharapova, the French Open champion, once described her movement on clay as being ‘like a cow on ice’.

Clay courts effect how the ball spins and is returned. Clay tennis courts favor players who can play defense. Players preserve more energy playing on a clay court since they can slide into their shots instead of coming to a complete stop. The bounce of a tennis ball is also higher and slower than that of a hard tennis court. Clay courts take away many of the advantages of a big serve, making it harder for serve-based players to dominate on the surface.

Clay courts are favoured by baseline players and players who generate heavy spins on their shots, example of such players are Michael Chang and Rafael Nadal who is often dubbed the King of Clay.

Understandably, those players who grow up on clay have a big advantage. Because the surface slows the ball, there is a greater necessity to create your own pace, one of the most difficult things to do. But even for those for whom clay is a rather strange surface, playing on it can build strength for later in the season, the extra kilometers in the legs setting them up nicely for grass and hard courts.

No other surface requires more tactical awareness than clay, quite simply because the reduced speed of the ball means longer rallies and longer matches. Whereas on grass or the quicker hard court surfaces, players can tee off in the expectation that the court speed will help them hit winners, on clay, there is more of a need to work for a point from start to finish.

Rallies are longer, points are tougher and matches generally last longer than on other surfaces. The influence of the serve is negated somewhat by the slowness of the clay, and groundstrokes, particularly a big forehand, are usually considered vital to success. With the ball bouncing high, strength is crucial to hit shot after shot from above the shoulder.

This may explain why players such as Pete Sampras, who favours the serve and volley game, has never won the French Open Championship (the only Grand Slam played on a Clay Court) despite his dominance of the Grass and Hard Courts in the 1990s.

There can be no doubt that fitness is a bigger issue on clay than any other surface but just because it is slow doesn’t mean that playing on clay is purely a battle from the baseline. It also requires patience, variety and imagination.

As Rafael Nadal – who has won more titles on clay than anyone in history – has shown, net play is important, too. Nadal has used a monster forehand to great effect over the years but he also hit plenty of drop shots and angles not being afraid to finish points at the net.

William Renshaw would surely be proud of the effects of his bit of improvisation.

While initially cheaper to build, clay tennis courts require a lot of careful management. They may need lines painted more frequently and rolled more often than hard courts. Water management is also a factor since too much water on the tennis court will cause damage.