Tennis Court Conditions: Why players and again mean as much as speed and bouncing

Indian Wells, Calif. It is an annual ritual. Players descend on the desert of California and explain an ideal location for a large tennis tournament. The sun, the dry air, the luxury accommodations, the whimsical hills and mountains that just past the Indian Wells Tennis Garden loom out outside Palm Springs.

Then they go to the purple and green hard courts with the large bounces that usually only happen on red clay. Another collective scream goes up and it is not that admiring.

Hey, wait a minute, I thought this should be a hard court.

This year they may have arrived to think that it would be different. Tournament organizers had selected a new company to get the courts to the surface, the same provider that open the US and the Miami, which Indian Wells follows on the tennis calendar. Finally, this desert and clave would play as the faster hard courts to which ATP and WTA Tour players in the US were used to.

But it is as slow and resilient as always.

Kind of the same court, really slow, bouncing a lot, said Carlos Alcaraz on Monday evening, after beating the dangerous Denis Shapovalov 6-2, 6-4. They said they changed it, but if nobody told me that I would think it is the same.

Daniil Medvedev, who threatened to pee as slowly as this court two years ago, while he declared himself a hard expert, showed up last week and said he thought the court was so slow and grim as always. Very, very slow, medvedev, second in 2023 and 2024, said about the courts.

The Russian, who beat Tommy Paul 6-4, 6-0 in the round of 16 Tuesday, said that when he accidentally dropped his racket during the training, the grain of the court tore his grip while it slid over the ground.

In the past, the Indian wells that played surface was formed by Plexipave. This year Laykold came on board. In both cases, the courts have three layers: asphalt or concrete on the bottom, a softer acrylic or silicone surface on top, and then surface liver that contains varying amounts of sand.

Tommy Haas, the former player who is a tournament director at Indian Wells, said that the organizers listened to the players' complaints last year and decided it was time to accelerate the courts.

The external courts seem to be a bit faster than stadium one and stadium two, Haas said on Tuesday in an interview. Stadium One seems to be the slowest. So tried to adjust, look at numbers and try to find out how they could keep all the courts as possible. That is what we want for the players.

In general, the more sand in the paint, the slower the court and the higher the bouncer. The physics involved has to do with trajectory and speed. On clay and a court like Indian Wells, an incoming ball of equal speed and the same route will retain less speed and bouncer bouncing steeper than the same ball would be on a faster hard court or on grass. Topspin, something that every player needs to varying extent, will have more impact on a court with more friction, which kicks the ball higher in the air. The sand in the paint at Indian Putten increases the friction, which is why more balls are spit up than low.

Two-time champion Carlos Alcaraz is comfortable on the Indian Wells Courts. (Clive Brunskill / Getty images)

Add the dry desert air, so that a ball can fly faster than more humid conditions, and what every player who comes to Indian wells must learn to deal with, the contrast between how quickly the ball travels when the air is in the air and how dramatic it slows when it touches the ground.

It is difficult to hit a winner and hit your portions here, Coco Gauff said after her 7-6 (1), 6-2 victory over Maria Sakkari Monday.

Sometimes you have hit a good shot and you think it is a great shot and your opponent is there. I think it is testing the patience here.

Some players get hot and worry about surfaces and changes. Some don't mind at all. There are two usually unspoken but very important truths about surface discussion in tennis. One is that a surface plays to its weather conditions and, at Indian Putten, it is possible to let the range of desert heat run to icy windstorm by a day and night.

The other is that how a tennis court plays is partly mandatory for the players who play on it. Someone with a lot of doll on their serve and monstrous foundations that plays in the sun in the afternoon will find things quickly. Someone who specializes in maneuvering and defense who plays in oblique winds at night will find them slowly. The beauty of the court is in the eye of the viewer.

Iga Swiatek, who has won twice here and is the title defender, looks imperious the moment she arrives. She likes slow courts. She likes high bounces. She likes to see her murderer Forehand flying through the air. Indian Wells all all three. Until now, her defending defense included three games, two 6-0 bagels and only 42 games in which she is 36-6. She has won 16 of her 21 return games. She likes it here.

It gives me a bit of an advantage, Swiatek said. But on the other hand, the circumstances are still difficult with the really dry air.

Alcaraz, who attracts a third title in a row in the men, loves it for the same reasons. This also applies to Stefanos Tsitsipas, on a revival with his new racket and the feeling of waving freely with it in the hand.

I played all my life with bounces like this, Tsitsipas said after beating Matteo Berrettini. The bounce is unusual for a hard court.

It is true that Indian wells bounce higher than most hard courts and it would be a sad tennis tour if all the hard courts could be played as close to the same as possible in the weather and geography. That saying, where every player craves every tournament, is consistency. They want the ball to behave uniform across the site, even if that is not really possible.

Novak Djokovic, probably the best hard-court player ever picked up a racket and a five-time winner in Indian Wells, was not particularly satisfied with the circumstances after his opening match for Botic van de Zandschulp on the weekend. Djokovic struggled to find his rhythm against the Dutchman all afternoon. Shots that looked like they were going in his percussion zone seemed to fascinate him and jumped around his diaphragm.

The difference between the Centrumhof and the other courts is huge, Djokovic said in his press conference. The ball bounces higher in midfield than some of the highest clay courts.

At the age of 37 he may never play again in this so-called tennis paradise.

Aryna Sabalenka, the Womens World No. 1 who will probably have to come in a final by Swiateek to win here, said she even thought there were some questionable parts of the court where the ball does not bounce at all or the ball goes up very high.

It is sometimes a very minimal amount of nagging and tries to find the balance that they would like at the end of the day, Haas said about the extent of the player's complaints.

But again, if you do well with tournaments, you usually forget if the ball bounces a little higher or slightly lower, or how fast it goes through the field. At the end of the day it's all about winning.

Several factors contribute to how quickly or delay the tennis ball on a certain court. The ball itself. The air temperature and the humidity. Given the desert location, Indian wells does not produce much humidity, but it gets seriously cold at night, with temperatures that often float in the low 1950s, and things are going slower. But on a hot, dry and usually still Monday afternoon it became interesting for Alex de Minaur in his match against Hubert Hurkacz. The last kick usually serves those players on their opponents Backhand, in an attempt to let it beat above their shoulders, left him a bad thing of the giggle.

The Minaur won 6-4, 6-0, but said that dealing with the second Serve of Hurkaczs was sometimes laughable. I felt that I needed a step ladder.

The surface speed feels exactly the same speed as several years, the Minaur added. What ensures completely different circumstances is the weather.

Nobody would have problems with that. But that also assumes that all courts play the same thing, which they don't do. Not here, nowhere, what is the point that Djokovic made. On most tournament sites, the outer courts get much more play than the stadium lanes. That makes them slippery and makes them smoother than their Show Court counterparts.

Aryna Sabalenka has so far usually taken by her matches in Indian Wells. (Clive Brunskill / Getty images)

Ben Shelton, who plays fellow countryman Brandon Nakashima in the round of 16, said he arrived in Indian Wells about a week earlier. He received a lot of practice on the two most important stadium courses, and also on the outer courts. He is on this with Djokovic.

I think that with every hard -court tournament the Center Court is slower, checks more, Shelton told Mariano Navone of Argentina on Saturday after his victory. I feel the same with Rod Laver (Arena, in Melbourne, Australia), I feel the same with Ashe (Arthur Ashe Stadium, NY), he added, referring to the two main courts at the Australian and the US.

Shelton stated that knowledge and the favorable climate to work on Monday, during a tight match with Karen Khahanov from Russia.

When it came close in the second set, Shelton started to bang 150 km / h in Khachanov, who could barely get out of the way. When Khachanov focused on avoiding that serve, Shelton started to kick out balls wide.

I get the most out of those services here because it is so difficult to bring the ball to the field, he said, after winning 6-3, 7-5.

There is another approach to all this, the one who is preferred by World No. 11 Tommy Paul. I am the worst man to ask about things like this, he said. I don't even think about it. I just go outside and play.

He still lived until Indian Wells Chief Hater, Medvedev, took him. Perception is nine tenths of the law.

(Top photo of Iga Swiatek: Charles Baus / Calsp via Associated Press)