About Roland Garros

[vkartikv]

I suppose I never noticed but watching the RG classics on the tennis channel bring a few noteworthy points out:
1. Seems like all the classic finals they show were affected by wind - is RG just a windy place?
2. Crowd can be very partisan and at times even stupid.
3. The surface seems a little slower now compared to the mid 80s.
Comments?

[Mikael]

1.) Not that windy. But with all the clay flying around I suppose you notice the wind more, and players are more affected by it (clay in the eyes, etc).

2.) I guess so.

3.) I'd say the surface is actually faster now than it used to be 15 years ago. I think they even changed the balls so that the court plays faster. All over the world it seems tournaments want a "normal" bounce, a "normal" speed, etc.

[tintin]

1-yes it can be
2-best crowd ever
3-actually way faster

[urban]

It can be windy. When Kuerten lost a qf to Medwedew in 1999, the wind was blowing very hard, and Kuerten didn't find his rhythm on the day. Sometimes the players have to stand still for a while, because the sand is swirling around them. The crowd can be ugly. Ask Leconte, who as a Frenchman was booed off the court after losing his final to Wilander. They didn't like him at that time, because he hit too hard and was a rival of their choochoo Noah. Sometimes players led draw themselves into a war with the crowd. Hingis did that in 99, which effectively broke her career. The organizers made the courts faster in the mid 80s, to favor their hometown boys like Noah, Leconte and Forget, who were in terms of style more like fast courters.

[CEvertFan]

The way the the center court is built and the location of it makes the wind swirl around in the stadium quite frequently. The commentators always comment on it.

[slice bh compliment]

Yeah, CEvertFan. It's funny, I have played numerous times at a club in that area (Bois de Boulogne) and it is just wonderful. Wooded, and not so windy. But the openness of the layout at RG...all 3 stadia get gusty, even when it is warm. Then other times, it is fine.

I also remember some windy, cold night matches at Flushing Meadows and even Forest Hills. And playing in totally still conditions the same day elsewhere in NY.

As they say, though, it is an outdoor sport (primarily) and a player's got to deal with it all. But, man even at the pro level, the standard of play is so much higher on a still day.

The best tennis I've ever seen or played is on a slow indoor court.