90's grass courts 100% needed to be slowed down because the upgrading racket technology was making the game more conducive to servebotting. The 90's game with its graphite rackets was already more serve-dominant than the 80's as matches like the 1994 Wimbledon final demonstrate, and that shift was only going to continue with the advent of even more groundbreaking technology in the late-90's/early-00's. I think it was absolutely a good idea to halt that change by slowing the grass down. Ideally, the 2001/2003-2004 Wimbledon courts are what grass should look like in this era. Quick-paced and low-bouncing, but not nearly as fast as the pre-2001 courts. Starting from 2005, imo, the courts became a bit slower and higher-bouncing, and that's when they started to go too far the other direction imo.
I don't think genuinely fast surfaces would be completely feasible these days (but maybe it could work). But I would certainly like to see more medium-fast courts.
I disagree. In my view, slowing down the courts was the biggest mistake this sport has made. Those fast, low bouncing courts gave the advantage to servers, sure. But those same servers were at a disadvantage for months of the clay court season. To give them an edge for the short grass court season was hardly a tragedy. Plus, if you look at those Wimbledons from the '90s-00's, plenty of baseliners still got through to the second week. For them, the onus was on shorter strokes, shorter points, and playing an all court game, which was an awesome break after weeks and weeks of baselining on clay.
We went from a calendar that had variety back then - the short winter AO/hard court swing (neutral surface) to the clay court/RG swing (advantage baseliners) to the short grass/Wimbledon swing (advantage serve and volleyers) to the fall hard court/USO swing (neutral surface). What we have now is a joke compared to that.
We're the only major sport going against the trend for more offense and quicker outcomes. Most every other professional sport has made rules changes in order to speed up play and raise scoring, or at least give the advantage to offense. Hockey, basketball, baseball, soccer, American football, even volleyball. In tennis, we've killed offense and turned pro tennis into a slogfest grind-a-thon.
