clay courters and "hard-courters"

[Tempest344]

why are clay courters always bagged out about only doing well on clay
and seems a lot of people don' respect them as much coz apparently they are
"only good on clay"
but the same can be applied to those who favour hard courts such as Roddick, Blake or Haas......Haas in particular being terrible on clay (remember the Davis Cup flogging to andreev even though he might have been "poisoned")

this year if you look at James blake he only played 4 or 5 clay court events
http://www.atptennis.com/3/en/players/playerprofiles/playeractivity.asp?player=B676

while if you look at Ferrero
http://www.atptennis.com/3/en/players/playerprofiles/playeractivity.asp?player=F316
he played a 8 or 9 more hard court events despite being a "clay courter"

everyone is better on a particular surface but i think there are too many hard court events...if the scheduling of tournaments were different i think that More Grass events would be a great Idea becuase it seems the ATP calender is definately favoured towards "hard court" specialists

 

[Zaragoza]

Totally agree, good post. I also think that the so called "clay courters" are much better on hardcourts than "hard courters" are on clay.

 

[Nadal_Freak]

Exactly. Great point.

 

[MEAC_ALLAMERICAN]

It's a great point yes, but you have to look at the current hard-court tournaments. They have slowed down considerably, which favors the "clay-court" specialists. Even though I don't like playing on clay, I love watching a clay court match, and do agree there are too many hard court tournaments. Isn’t that they way it has always been though?

 

[Loco4Tennis]

playing on clay sucks when your used to playing on hardcourt,
the ball does not come to you on clay like it does on hardcourt, it dies off easier, clay courters play on hardcourt like they are use to and just move in on every shoot, the pace/bounce surprices them but they are within reach
ive played in both and since i dont play on clay enough, i often get caught waiting for a ball that does not bounce back to me

 

[aramis]

True. Just go back to 2003 when JCF won the French and got to the USO final in BRUTAL conditions. But what was US champion Roddick's result at RG?

Is it the movement? If that's the case then how can Hewitt have such fine results on clay despite not being able to slide like the Spanish guys? Obviously he doesn't have superior results, but he is generally considered a formidable opponent on the dirt.