Which Australian Open do you prefer?
- Thread starter R_Federer
- Start date
veroniquem
Bionic Poster
I liked Rebound Ace, now there is less difference between USO and AO. Poor Agassi would not have won all his AO titles if the surface had become faster (and Sampras would be the undisputed GOAT with at least 17 slams to his name!) It would have deprived us of great spectacular matches between the 2 of them (it would have been serve, serve, serve and Game set and match for Sampras even before the match started like USO)
S H O W S T O P P E R !
Hall of Fame
I liked the green original. Now the US Open and the Aussie Open are extremely similar in playing style, which makes it more boring.
Bud
Bionic Poster
R_Federer
Professional
The US Open also used to be green few years ago.
By the way, I find US Open now to be the least exciting of the 4 Slams. Wimbledon and French will always be the best. So that leaves the choice between Aussie or US Open.
The Aussie Open, being the first Slam of the year provides excitement and is highly anticipated. Plus the crowd atmosphere is great and there are always great upset stories.
The US Open has lost its charm for me. With all the Master tournaments, it just gets played out in my opinion.
Anyone agree?
By the way, I find US Open now to be the least exciting of the 4 Slams. Wimbledon and French will always be the best. So that leaves the choice between Aussie or US Open.
The Aussie Open, being the first Slam of the year provides excitement and is highly anticipated. Plus the crowd atmosphere is great and there are always great upset stories.
The US Open has lost its charm for me. With all the Master tournaments, it just gets played out in my opinion.
Anyone agree?
J-man
Hall of Fame
No I don't, to an extent. I think The US Open has the most exciting night matches (yes more exciting than the AO) but the day time matches are boring. They just don't have that electrifying aurora surrounding it. AO day matches, French Open, Wimbledon day matches are much more exciting in my opinion.
R_Federer
Professional
Fair enough, that is one thing which US Open has - the exciting night matches. But id still prefer Australian Open overall over US Open.
All-rounder
Legend
rebound ace as now US open and Australian open plays similar now
Winners or Errors
Legend
The AO should be played on grass.
I preferred the Rebound Ace court over Plexicushion. The differences between the grand slams has been lost. Back in the 90's, the majors all had different surfaces. RA was a surface that was slower and high bouncing. Plexicushion is too similar to the US Open's Decoturf surface. Now the AO has become the Jr. US Open.
edberg505
Legend
What makes you guys think the surface now is faster than Rebound Ace? The surface they are using now is insanely slow.
T
tennisgirl90
Guest
I prefer the blue one, but it doesn't really matter.
Chauvalito
Hall of Fame
Rebound Ace.
matchmaker
Hall of Fame
Another vote for Rebound Ace. This needs a poll.
alienhamster
Hall of Fame
Rebound Ace. The bounciness changed the shape of the game, and I liked the pace of the court. Wasn't loving the new surface as much last year, but I'm willing to give it another try this year.
Jackie T. Stephens
Professional
Yeah, I love the new color.
380pistol
Banned
Honestly I don't know. I dispised Rebound Ace as may players (Sampras, Safin, Hewitt) complained about it being bad where health is concerned. When it it gets hot the court gets very sticky and can become a health hazard, which was one of the major detriments of Rebound Ace.
As far as Plexicushion it's far better than Rebound Ace where health, safety and maintenance is concerned, but as it's been noted it's too similar to the US Open's Deco Turf II (an acrylic hardcourt) while Rebound Ace (a synthetic hardcourt) was somewhat different.
As far as the colour I really did not like the blue on blue which they used for Plexicushion, but it grew on me. I would prefer the green as the US Open has changed to blue. Miami (Key Biscayne) had a dark green and green colour scheme, but now they've made it purple. So I kind of miss the traditional green hardcourts. So I'm partial to have the Aus Open played on a green coloured surface.
As far as Plexicushion it's far better than Rebound Ace where health, safety and maintenance is concerned, but as it's been noted it's too similar to the US Open's Deco Turf II (an acrylic hardcourt) while Rebound Ace (a synthetic hardcourt) was somewhat different.
As far as the colour I really did not like the blue on blue which they used for Plexicushion, but it grew on me. I would prefer the green as the US Open has changed to blue. Miami (Key Biscayne) had a dark green and green colour scheme, but now they've made it purple. So I kind of miss the traditional green hardcourts. So I'm partial to have the Aus Open played on a green coloured surface.
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Maybe plexicushion with the same speed and bounce of the Rebound Ace (If that's possible) and painted the same colour would make everyone happy. lol. None of the pros would complain about injuries and you guys wouldn't complain about speed or colour. Would it be possible to make it the same speed/bounce or is not impossible? I'm not the best with different court types.
pricey_aus
Semi-Pro
Trust me, i trained at melbourne park for the past year, and they resurfaced the courts about 2 months ago, which made them sloooooowwwww again. I wouldn't be suprised if Rafa (hoping that he's knees hold up) goes deep into this tournament.
Ronny
Hall of Fame
or the us open be changed to carpet...ao is much older
Nadal_Freak
Banned
I hope you are right. That would be sweet to see some slow courts again. It's been awhile.
LanceStern
Professional
I like the look of the Rebound Ace, but I don't like how slow it is.
US Open is probably the worse if I had to choose, but that's only because the others are so tight. All of them are exciting to me, and the US Open redeems itself with night-time matches, which are electric.
AO has great upsets (plays slow now though), French is unique and grinding, Wimbledon is classy and my favorite
US Open is probably the worse if I had to choose, but that's only because the others are so tight. All of them are exciting to me, and the US Open redeems itself with night-time matches, which are electric.
AO has great upsets (plays slow now though), French is unique and grinding, Wimbledon is classy and my favorite
Andres
G.O.A.T.
An indoors facility when the temperature in Melbourne around January is 40+ ?
I would think that anyone who has had the misfortune to play on Rebound Ace (one of the worst court surfaces of all time) would be amazed that people - whose only exposure to it was through their television screen - would actually be debating whether or not it was was wise to replace it.
R_Federer
Professional
By the way, I dont know if ya'll agree on this but I want the Australian Open to change their setup to the same as the US Open, as in to have the women's final played during the night and the men's final in the day, where the atmosphere is better at the AO.
So switch them around. Anyone agree? I think men's final at AO should be played during the afternoon.
So switch them around. Anyone agree? I think men's final at AO should be played during the afternoon.
There's already the green clay of Wimbledon and the red clay of Roland Garros, why would you want even more slow courts? Do you want to bask in the glory of Nadal winning, which was only made possible due to the large-scale slowing down of the courts?
R_Federer
Professional
Answer: Yes.
Nadal_Freak
Banned
Are you Namranger with another account? lol But seriously every surface since the French Open has been medium-fast except Toronoto which is more medium. It has been a boring 6 months of medium-fast indoor and outdoor hardcourts.
No.
Not so. You're discounting the grass, which is considerably slower than the hardcourts, and only minimally faster than clay, but with a different kind of bounce.
The way the season is as of right now, it's like this:
Fast-Slowest-Slow-Fastest
Why would you want it to be:
Slow-Slowest-Slower-Medium Fast
?
Do you want Nadal to win everything? You're a real glory hunter, aren't you?
edberg505
Legend
Dude, they were insanely slow last year already. How much slower can they get?
veroniquem
Bionic Poster
Nadal can win on any surface. What are you babbling about?
Nadal_Freak
Banned
They sped up in the second week and I'll assume they will again this year. The flaw of hardcourts it seems as they get smoother as the tournament goes along. Thus more skidding. But the main thing is the height of bounce. That is what will make the biggest difference in how well Nadal does. Maybe Plexicushion just isn't a high bouncing surface.
edberg505
Legend
Umm, no they didn't. You can't just majicaly speed up courts. They have to be resurfaced to be sped up. Even the commentators reported on how the courts were tearing the ball up because they were so slow and that was during the Nadal vs. Tsonga match.
Nadal_Freak
Banned
Just watch a match on the first day of the Australian and then watch the Nadal vs. Tsonga match. Tell me there isn't a big difference there. They even said that the courts would speed up with the more they got played on. That is why they resurfaced the courts. To slow the courts down.
tkauffm
Rookie
I think aesthetically the plexicushion looks great, but something about there had to be something about the rebound ace. The quality of ball striking and the tennis in general always seemed so high to me. Do they have any rebound ace courts or plexicushion courts in the US? I'd really like to play on them to see what they're like
tkauffm
Rookie
There was a difference in speed because Tsonga was hitting the **** out of the ball!
kungfusmkim
Professional
i like the stuff now it bounces less high
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