Isnt it ironic that French open has clay surface ?

tennisaddict

tennisaddict

Bionic Poster
The French players are known for class, attacking style who like to hit winners and dictate matches, win quick points and not meander around the court hoping for your opponent to make a mistake , sending balls from the baseline tirelessly. (exception Simon).

Clay tennis encourages baseline play, defensive game and long hours of stamina and does not reward attacking play. Huge serves are neutralized.

Ideally French Open should have been played on grass, given the kind of tennis their players play. I find it ironic it is played on clay.

Look at USO. All the players train on hard courts and are a fish out of water when it comes to playing on clay. Would USO change their surface to clay ?

It would have been awesome to have 2 grass majors, back to back.
 
TennezSport

TennezSport

Hall of Fame
Homework..........

tennisaddict said:
Look at USO. All the players train on hard courts and are a fish out of water when it comes to playing on clay. Would USO change their surface to clay?
Click to expand...

Do a little homework and you will find that the USO was played on clay and grass. For some time the AO, Wimbly and USO were on grass. Then the USO changed to clay and finally to HC. The AO went directly from grass to HC.

Cheers, TennezSport :cool:
 
tennisaddict

tennisaddict

Bionic Poster
TennezSport said:
Do a little homework and you will find that the USO was played on clay and grass. For some time the AO, Wimbly and USO were on grass. Then the USO changed to clay and finally to HC. The AO went directly from grass to HC.

Cheers, TennezSport :cool:
Click to expand...

Let us not talk of pre-80's. We are already forty years past that.
 
Bartelby

Bartelby

Bionic Poster
Clay arose, from memory, out of the fact that lawn tennis courts require an immense amount of watering and were impossible to establish in the Midi where the French go to play in summer.
 
M

M Dean

Rookie
gavna said:
Clay is the best surface to learn on......totally false notion that you cannot attack and win on clay - go watch Noah vs Wilander, Leconte vs Wilander, Federer, Soderling and Edberg also did well........

The French system has always produced great shot makers......Haillet, Barthes, Noah, Leconte, Forget, Pioline, Monfils, Tsonga, Paire.........it's part of the system and how players are taught - Clay is a GREAT way to learn movement - much easier to transition from clay to hard then the other way......
Click to expand...

totaly agree! from my personal experience... i play 60% of the year on clay (btw, i never learnt to slide on clay) and the transition to HC i great.
the first hours are like heaven, due to better/consistant bounce, better visibility / (my personal) perception of the court it's pure fun.
i do have a feeling that playing on clay can only help playing on HC.
also clay is in it's own also fun to play... the tactics, the point structure is somehow different and interesting.
 
J

jrs

Professional
I don't know there hasn't been French winners at Wimbledon!

Love the French style of Tennis - a lot flair in their game!
 
F

FedExpress17

Rookie
Would be great to see French open played on fast indoor hardcourts :) Tsonga would have a great chance then :-D obviously not gonna happen but still, one can dream :(
 
B

Benhur

Hall of Fame
Not just the French, but humanity as a whole is the result of a clay irony of divine proportions.

Clay/dust is the noblest of substances, the raw material of man according to Genesis 2:7. Most translations give it as “dust” but some give it as “clay”, such as the Knox Bible.

“And now, from the clay of the ground, the Lord God formed man, breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and made of man a living person.”

And Job 33:6 says: "Behold, I am toward God as you are; I too was pinched off from a piece of clay."

And in Isaiah 64:8 we read: “But now, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.”
 
eliars

eliars

Hall of Fame
Benhur said:
Not just the French, but humanity as a whole is the result of a clay irony of divine proportions.

Clay/dust is the noblest of substances, the raw material of man according to Genesis 2:7. Most translations give it as “dust” but some give it as “clay”, such as the Knox Bible.

“And now, from the clay of the ground, the Lord God formed man, breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and made of man a living person.”

And Job 33:6 says: "Behold, I am toward God as you are; I too was pinched off from a piece of clay."

And in Isaiah 64:8 we read: “But now, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.”
Click to expand...

Brilliant. The bible contains a lot of gems.

The irony and paradoxical nature of clay has more depths to it as such though. All you have to do is look at the great Muhammad Ali who once uttered the following: "Cassius Clay is a slave name. I didn't choose it, and I didn't want it. I am Muhammad Ali, a free name - it means beloved of God - and I insist people use it when speaking to me and of me."

Ali implies that clay is subject to the adscripted, unfree and bound and that clay as a name or indeed phenomena is not beloved by God. This raises the question of whether God actually from whence clay created man in the first place and if he indeed did, did God intend for man to be a slave?
 
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