In actuality, there are hundreds of Har-Tru courts in Europe and with the weakness of the US dollar, I would expect more to be built in the next year or so. The largest market for Har-Tru in Europe in the UK. There are over 100 courts in England and the first court in Ireland was installed last year. In fact, The All England Lawn Tennis Club (Wimbledon) now has 8 Har-Tru courts with the HydroCourt subsurface irrigation system underneath of them. All eight were originally red clay....in fact the club only has 2 or 3 hard courts and the main reason they are there is so buses can drop patrons off for the tournament and turn around on them without rutting up the surface. The largest percentage of member play at the club is on the Har-Tru courts and not on the famed grass courts there. In addition, there are quite a few Har-Tru courts in Germany and few here and there throughout Europe and into other neighboring countries like Turkey.
There are three main factors as to why you don't see more green Har-Tru courts in Europe; tradition, cost, and knowledge. In no way am I going to say that Har-Tru is any better than red clay, but at the same time, there is no way it is not as good either. As General Manager of Lee Tennis Court Products, the manufacturers of Har-Tru, I am certainly a little bias...but in an objective way, lets look at the differences. Har-Tru has been around since the late 1920's and over the past 80 years, it has replaced most (98% or more) of the red clay and "dirt" courts here in North America. Prior to it's introduction, all the clay courts in the US were red/brown or an imported European product called En-tout-cas. What tennis court owners found was that Har-Tru was easier to maintain, easier to source, more consistent from bag to bag, and dried much quicker after a rain than red clay or En-tout-cas. Therefore, over the 80 years, almost all of the red clay courts that were in the US were switched over to the green stuff. Red clay courts in Europe are all a little different. I have seen courts that were 2 feet thick of different layers of brick and terracotta dust and others, like Roland Garros, that are actually constructed of white limestone and top dressed with about 1/8 of fine brick dust to reduce glare and allow the ball to be set off better to the eye. Most of the clay courts over there use a product from a local brick producer...so as the local product goes, so does the quality of the court. Same thing happens in Mexico, Central and South America.
To further clarify why you don't see more in Europe...red is clay court tennis in Europe and changing the minds of tennis players and tennis fanatics is very tough. Tradition and loyalty are strong persuaders in judgment, even if they are not totally correct. When building a Har-Tru court in Europe, the clay has to ship from Charlottesville, VA where is is mined (it is a finely crushed, naturally formed green stone -it is not colored with pigment in any way) and processed to the proper gradation. Shipping alone can run $5000 to $7000 for the 40 tons (2 shipping containers full) of Har-Tru needed to lay down a 1" thick layer. So if you are comparing prices, Har-Tru is always at a disadvantage to start because of the freight charges. We have seen as court owners in Europe experience a Har-Tru court and better understand the benefits to owning our court, that they are very interested in the product. As labor rates for maintenance increase in Europe,as they have in the US, you will see more and more green clay in those markets.
For more info on Har-Tru, email me through our website at
www.hartru.com .
Play The Clay. Play For Life. Play Har-Tru!
