Increase pace of Australian Open court

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Fedexeon

Hall of Fame
Hewitt scores an early win at Australian Open

LLEYTON Hewitt has scored an early victory in his attempt to win his first Australian Open title next January.

Organisers of the grand slam event today conceded that the court speed in the opening week of last year's tournament was slower than desired, and that steps would be taken to ensure that was rectified next year.

Hewitt has been an outspoken critic of the slow court speed and the 'tacky' playing surface at Melbourne Park in recent years.

The former Wimbledon and US Open winner has made the final of his home grand slam just once, in 2005 when he was beaten in four sets by Russia's Marat Safin.

Australian Open tournament director Craig Tiley said yesterday that he was committed to ensuring all courts played at a uniform speed throughout the two-week tournament that starts on January 16.

But he was at pains to point out that the complaints from Hewitt and his entourage about the sluggish pace had not influenced the decision to resurface all of Melbourne Park's courts next month.

"The perception was certainly that during the first week (last year) courts were slower than the second week,'' Tiley said yesterday. "Our objective, from day one, is to have uniformity and consistency throughout the tournament."

Total prize-money for the event has increased five per cent to $20 million, with the singles winners each to pocket $1.28 million.
 
wow, they actually listened to Lleyton for once. I myself would like to see a faster court at the AO.

He wouldn't wanna lose early now
 
New tournament director Graig Tiley:
He (Tiley) said there would be no change to the speed of the courts despite criticism from home hope Lleyton Hewitt before the 2006 tournament that the slower pace of the surface did not suit his game.

"We've had ongoing discussions with Lleyton Hewitt's management team on a variety of different subjects but again the event we are delivering is an international event, and we will uphold that integrity," Tiley said.

"According to the International Tennis Federation, we fit into the category of a medium to a medium-fast court," he said.

"Our objective from day one is to have uniformity and consistency throughout the tournament," said Tiley, adding that all outside courts would be resurfaced in November.
Click to expand...
The entire article:
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=6&click_id=30&art_id=qw1159860780421S163
 
That's great news, imo. I'd like to see the AO courts speeded up. Slow, bouncy courts just don't seem "Aussie" enough to me.
 
I dont see why Hewitt would complain about the speed of the court surfaces seeing that he made the finals in 2005.
 
Any important event moving to faster courts is bound to be a positive.

Though, I don't necessarily think the AO played "too slow" before. It was one of the few tournaments where attackers and grinders seemed to each have legitimate chances of winning.
 
Rataplan said:
New tournament director Graig Tiley:

He (Tiley) said there would be no change to the speed of the courts despite criticism from home hope Lleyton Hewitt before the 2006 tournament that the slower pace of the surface did not suit his game.

"We've had ongoing discussions with Lleyton Hewitt's management team on a variety of different subjects but again the event we are delivering is an international event, and we will uphold that integrity," Tiley said.

"According to the International Tennis Federation, we fit into the category of a medium to a medium-fast court," he said.

"Our objective from day one is to have uniformity and consistency throughout the tournament," said Tiley, adding that all outside courts would be resurfaced in November.


The entire article:
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=6&click_id=30&art_id=qw1159860780421S163
Click to expand...

Try again, people. Rataplan got it right.

I don't see how resurfacing the outside courts is a "win" for Hewitt.
 
We already got fast hard courts at the US Open. We might as well go to the opposite end of hard courts at the Australian Open. Hopefully they stay with the speed they have. What's next? Speeding up clay courts?
 
fastdunn said:
Hmm, is this a beginning of ATP surfaces getting faster ???
Click to expand...

No. It's just getting it back to normal. Aussie rebound ace had always been classified as medium court. The last a few years it has changed to slower court with slower balls. This year was just ridiculously slow. Now it's getting back to medium.

By the way, it wasn't just Hewitt complained last year. Almost the whole ATP and Aussie media criticized the dramatic change last year which resulted the resignation of chief of Aussie tennis.
 
All statements about the slow pace of the AO may well be true, but they had nothing to do with Hewitt's early exit from the action.
 
Nadal_Freak said:
We already got fast hard courts at the US Open. We might as well go to the opposite end of hard courts at the Australian Open. Hopefully they stay with the speed they have.
Click to expand...
Agree 100%.

Nadal_Freak said:
What's next? Speeding up clay courts?
Click to expand...
They've been doing that for years. It's back breaking work - they literall scrap the courts down to the harder base. The days of the 80 shot rallies at the FO are long gone. And hopefully not coming back.

The Hewitt situation is weird. He obviously knows what's best for his game. But if I were him I'd be fearful of getting served off the court by Dr. Ivo (remember Wimbledon a few years back?), Mad Max, or any of the 6'4", 6'5" monsters who are more and more prevalent on tour.

And his window of opportunity to win the AO has probably already come and gone.
 
"The perception was certainly that during the first week (last year) courts were slower than the second week,'' Tiley said yesterday. "Our objective, from day one, is to have uniformity and consistency throughout the tournament."

LOL.................. and satisfy Lleyton the whiner. Of course the consistency and pace does not vary at other grand slam surfaces does it ! :rolleyes:
 
superman1 said:
Why? Safin always does best on fast, indoor courts, so he likes it quick. He likes everything except grass.
Click to expand...
Safin was quoted as saying he liked the higher bounce and slower-speed of the Rebound-Ace of the Australian Open.
He also said he hoped that the Davis Cup surface in Moscow would be 'wet and slow'....
Perhaps he can't handle the fast surfaces anymore...
 
Like it really matters.

Hewitt's chances of winning regardless of court speed = zero.

Federer chances of winning regardless of the court speed = 100%, its a lock
 
My coach and I just had a conversation about the "rebound ace" surface. He is from Australia and he told me that the rebound ace surfaces that he grew up playing on played fast and didn't bounce as high as the ones at the AO. He also said that the courts vary a lot due to temp. So maybe they are just trying to make the surface play the way it was meant to play.
 
Like it matters.

This is nothing significant in the world of tennis. This is like switching from red clay to Har-tru. Faster, but not fast. The fastest surface on tour is still slow by the standards of yesterday. Wake me up when they add another grass court tournament. By the way, a real grass tourney.
 
They did not say anything about speeding up the courts, they said that they wanted the courts uniform, so don't be suprised when they complain LOL



IMO it is lame, they want every court as fast as possbile, God forbid they have to actually play tennis and do the work LOL

There should be fast and slow hard courts just as there are fast and slow clay courts.


And it is a shame if the AO does make it faster as then what is the real distinction between the surfaces of the AO and USO?

So we end up seeing the exact same tournament twice?

If anything needs to be changed they should be having a much longer grass season with fast and slow grass, and not to bunch between clay and hard courts.
 
Originally posted by jackson vile
If anything needs to be changed they should be having a much longer grass season with fast and slow grass, and not to bunch between clay and hard courts.
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Better, but if the grass is the same as Wimbledon is now the change would be too small to make a dent in the game. Wimbledon needs to change to a faster grass, otherwise the serve&volley potential out there will never pursue the true art in hopes of winning the games grand prize. The will just copy the defensive/offensive hybrids like Federer, and try to get their title that way. Serve&Volley must be the percentage play to win on the biggest grass stage, just as retrieving is the way on clay.
 
Grassrootstennis said:
Better, but if the grass is the same as Wimbledon is now the change would be too small to make a dent in the game. Wimbledon needs to change to a faster grass, otherwise the serve&volley potential out there will never pursue the true art in hopes of winning the games grand prize. The will just copy the defensive/offensive hybrids like Federer, and try to get their title that way. Serve&Volley must be the percentage play to win on the biggest grass stage, just as retrieving is the way on clay.
Click to expand...


You are 100% right, I am fine with have slow courts for grass (that is relative of course), but the W should be the fastest slickest court on earth.

What bugs me is that the courts get worn down as the tournament goes on so that you're not even playing on grass at the end, just dirt.

Hard courts should be fast but rough, not slick

And clay should be as slow as can be, let's see more shots and see them really work for it, but IMO they seem to be doing really well with keeping the FO and ect in check to playing how clay is supposed to be played.
 
jackson vile said:
And it is a shame if the AO does make it faster as then what is the real distinction between the surfaces of the AO and USO?

So we end up seeing the exact same tournament twice?
Click to expand...
Uh-uh !...

The balls spin the other way Down Under, so no way the AO and USO will ever be the same !

:|
 
jackson vile said:
And it is a shame if the AO does make it faster as then what is the real distinction between the surfaces of the AO and USO?
Click to expand...

I guess you don't know about tennis court much. Aussie open is rebound ace, rubberized hardcourt, thus no matter how much they speed up the court, it will never be the same as US Open court, which is why they choose rebound ace in the first place, to distinguish from US Open hard court.
 
The tennis guy said:
I guess you don't know about tennis court much. Aussie open is rebound ace, rubberized hardcourt, thus no matter how much they speed up the court, it will never be the same as US Open court, which is why they choose rebound ace in the first place, to distinguish from US Open hard court.
Click to expand...


So did you completely miss the point agian? LOL Some of the players are complaining and don't want ACE, they want an american hard court.

Further more they complained about consitancy, the thing is that ACE is very very highly effected by temperature and humidity, so if one day is hoter and the other colder you will get a much different playing effect.

They are complaining about the very atributes of ACE LOL
 
So if the Rebound Ace is playing slower than it used to, then how would they go about speeding it up to return it to normal? For that matter, how did they slow it down?

Is the balls they use? How much is there to the whole matter of using heavier, slower balls?
 
Bassus said:
So if the Rebound Ace is playing slower than it used to, then how would they go about speeding it up to return it to normal? For that matter, how did they slow it down?

Is the balls they use? How much is there to the whole matter of using heavier, slower balls?
Click to expand...

Court speed depends more on what's underneath the surface. To make a hardcourt slower, the easiast way to do is put more sand underneath. To speed it up, just reduce the sand, and increase the hard layers.

Aussie switched to heavier ball last year from Slanzenger to Wilson. They didn't realize it made the big difference when the ball was just slightly heavier. Courts react to different balls differently. Some of them manified much more than others, and some don't change much.
 
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