Following a suggestion by heycal, I create a thread to talk about surfaces and their history. Personally I'm interested in the history of tennis and am trying to find a way to figure out a list of 4 big tournaments for each year. All the talk about the Federer/Nadal rivalry has made me more conscious of the significance of surfaces in the concept of Grand Slam.
I know very little about this subject, that's why I invite everyone to contribute any knowledge they could have about it. My main questions are:
-which tournament were played on which surface? (there are obvious answers for the amateur Slams or still-existing tournaments (Rome, Monte-Carlo, etc.). It's less obvious for tournaments of the Pro Era for example (any big clay events aside from the French Pro?).
-how were surface perceived at different times? Was clay less significant in the 60s? more significant? Sampras's clay failures are seen today as a hole in his resume, Federer's defeats in Roland Garros put the stress on that...was the fact of being an all-court player as important a factor for greatness, in the past?...
In another thread, heycal asked about the history of clay. I found an article about this on terrebattue.org (the website of a French association aiming at defending claycourt tennis). It's in French, so I (roughly) translate it for the English-speakers:
"In 1878, the Renshaws, multiple Wimbledon winners, built grass tennis courts on the French Riviera (where they spent all their vacation time), at the "Beau Site" location, a neighbourhood of Cannes. It didn't take long for the white-clothed gentlemen to look for another surface to play their sport, due to the hot weather and the quick 'ruining' of the courts.
In 1880 they thought of covering the court with a powder that protects and gives its colour to the court. This powder came from the destruction of flawed 'terra cotta' pots in a small factory at Vallauris, where the brothers used to buy their decorative pots.
This was a success and in a year or two, 104 courts were built in Cannes alone. Then brick powder replaced the Vallauris powder, as the original factory was too small.
This new surface was much better for the sunny hot areas, as it needs no water-spraying, no mawing, etc. Only flaw, after rain showers, it was very long to dry. That's why in 1909, an English company called 'En tout cas' invented a new formula, a mix of sand and brick powder, and thus the concept of 'fast dry'. In the 1910s the concept was exported to many countries, Italy, Spain, and in the USA.
The Americans still kept experimenting new possibilities, and in 1928, H.A.Robinson created a surface based on classic clay, plus a little green piled rock. This was Har-tru (Har= H A Robinson, 'tru' =the 'true' color of a tennis court), and it soon became the Americans' favorite claycourt type."
Jonathan
I know very little about this subject, that's why I invite everyone to contribute any knowledge they could have about it. My main questions are:
-which tournament were played on which surface? (there are obvious answers for the amateur Slams or still-existing tournaments (Rome, Monte-Carlo, etc.). It's less obvious for tournaments of the Pro Era for example (any big clay events aside from the French Pro?).
-how were surface perceived at different times? Was clay less significant in the 60s? more significant? Sampras's clay failures are seen today as a hole in his resume, Federer's defeats in Roland Garros put the stress on that...was the fact of being an all-court player as important a factor for greatness, in the past?...
In another thread, heycal asked about the history of clay. I found an article about this on terrebattue.org (the website of a French association aiming at defending claycourt tennis). It's in French, so I (roughly) translate it for the English-speakers:
"In 1878, the Renshaws, multiple Wimbledon winners, built grass tennis courts on the French Riviera (where they spent all their vacation time), at the "Beau Site" location, a neighbourhood of Cannes. It didn't take long for the white-clothed gentlemen to look for another surface to play their sport, due to the hot weather and the quick 'ruining' of the courts.
In 1880 they thought of covering the court with a powder that protects and gives its colour to the court. This powder came from the destruction of flawed 'terra cotta' pots in a small factory at Vallauris, where the brothers used to buy their decorative pots.
This was a success and in a year or two, 104 courts were built in Cannes alone. Then brick powder replaced the Vallauris powder, as the original factory was too small.
This new surface was much better for the sunny hot areas, as it needs no water-spraying, no mawing, etc. Only flaw, after rain showers, it was very long to dry. That's why in 1909, an English company called 'En tout cas' invented a new formula, a mix of sand and brick powder, and thus the concept of 'fast dry'. In the 1910s the concept was exported to many countries, Italy, Spain, and in the USA.
The Americans still kept experimenting new possibilities, and in 1928, H.A.Robinson created a surface based on classic clay, plus a little green piled rock. This was Har-tru (Har= H A Robinson, 'tru' =the 'true' color of a tennis court), and it soon became the Americans' favorite claycourt type."
Jonathan