Not only do I hope they keep the blue clay in Madrid, but make all clay blue.

[BreakPoint]

I'm watching the Rome matches on TV right now, and as usual, I can't see the freaking ball! It's been like this every clay court season forever. It's next to impossible to see the little yellow ball against the orange red clay surface on TV. The blue clay in Madrid was soooooo much better! The blue color background provided so much more contrast to see the yellow tennis ball.

That's why do I not only hope Madrid keeps the blue color clay courts from now on, but that the ATP and ITF forces EVERY clay court tournament to switch to the blue clay. And, yes, that includes the French Open. There, I said it!

 

[SStrikerR]

I honestly don't understand, what kind of tvs are you people watching on? I can see the ball perfectly. If you don't have HD then that's your own problem, and if you do and STILL can't see it...I don't know what's wrong. Go to the eye doctor or something.

 

[OddJack]

I hope they keep it as well.

And the fact that Nadal wont be there makes it even better.

 

[drakulie]

The blue definitely magnifies the visibilty of the ball. Madrid was awesome to watch,,,, especially on HD. Really clear.

 

[Cup8489]

The blue definitely magnifies the visibilty of the ball. Madrid was awesome to watch,,,, especially on HD. Really clear.

True that.. I enjoy watching the AO so much for this particular reason.

 

[FedExpress117]

I honestly don't understand, what kind of tvs are you people watching on? I can see the ball perfectly. If you don't have HD then that's your own problem, and if you do and STILL can't see it...I don't know what's wrong. Go to the eye doctor or something.

I lol'd at the last sentence. Some of us don't have HD TVs. A lot of us watch tennis using live streaming on the computer where the quality isn't at great. Options vary, but that's your choice if you want to say something like "go get your own HDTV, sorry that you don't have it". I do have an HDTV, but I don't always get to watch tennis on it.. If they can switch it to blue clay but keep the traction/quality of the clay the same, then I'm fine with it. If Nadal had beaten Djokovic in a close match on blue clay, then every Nadal fan wouldn't be afraid of signing a petition to make every clay court blue .

Of course people can still see the ball. I'm sure you could see a red ball on orange clay, it would just be way more difficult. It's just a matter of convenience, but the yellow on blue makes it a lot easier (not a night/day difference of not seeing it vs seeing it).

 

[skip1969]

i'm with striker. i can see the ball just fine. of course, at different events and on different courts, the camera angles are better, which does play a part. but i watch tennis on hd, or on my laptop . . . no problems.

and my *ss is old.

and my old *ss wears glasses.

 

[BreakPoint]

I honestly don't understand, what kind of tvs are you people watching on? I can see the ball perfectly. If you don't have HD then that's your own problem, and if you do and STILL can't see it...I don't know what's wrong. Go to the eye doctor or something.

I do have HD on a 42 inch plasma. Everything was CRYSTAL CLEAR on the blue clay of Madrid. In Rome, it's like night and day. It's SO MUCH harder to see the ball. It's been like this every year during the clay court season since I've been watching it on TV from the '70's. Someone finally wised up and colored the clay blue. It works! The difference in contrast is dramatic.

 

[Bobby Jr]

I honestly don't understand, what kind of tvs are you people watching on? I can see the ball perfectly. If you don't have HD then that's your own problem, ...

I have a 52 inch HD tv (100hz LED LCD) and often on red clay the ball is hard to see. My eyesight is fine that I know of - I don't use corrective glasses for anything.

The French Open for some reason seems to be fine but Monaco, Rome and Milan (previously) were terrible. The change to blue clay was a godsend in that respect.

 

[Bartelby]

I still can't see why they can't simply work on changing the colour of the ball. Tiriac intends to do this even for the blue clay.

What's the opposite of red clay on the colour spectrum? That's all you need to know to produce better visibility.

 

[Bartelby]

The answer seems to be that some kind of 'optic' blue would work with red clay.

 

[thekingofkong]

I honestly don't understand, what kind of tvs are you people watching on? I can see the ball perfectly. If you don't have HD then that's your own problem, and if you do and STILL can't see it...I don't know what's wrong. Go to the eye doctor or something.

well, i dont understand too, what kind of tv are you watching? "ET-made" maybe?

 

[Soulie]

Tbh I find the red clay a lot easier on the eyes - much more comfortable to watch. My eyes grew tired after watching a few sets on this newfangled blue dirt.

 

[primetennis]

The blue definitely magnifies the visibilty of the ball. Madrid was awesome to watch,,,, especially on HD. Really clear.

+1..blue clay is awesome..

 

[Bartelby]

Madrid with its high altitude blue clay that 'works?' would be a great addition to autumn, but Hamburg was a better fit for the European clay spring tour leading to RG.

 

[primetennis]

Madrid with its high altitude blue clay that 'works?' would be a great addition to autumn, but Hamburg was a better fit for the European clay spring tour leading to RG.

we are talking here about the ball visibility buddy !!

 

[Overheadsmash]

The blue definitely magnifies the visibilty of the ball. Madrid was awesome to watch,,,, especially on HD. Really clear.

+1 ^^^^

Also, If you ever go to Cinci, you will know how well you can see the ball against those blue courts they have there.

 

[FedExpress117]

Here's an HD stream from NBC of Roland Garros and in my opinion it's a little harder to see the ball since it's yellow on red/orange. It could also be a bad video (it is 720p though..), but when the ball goes to the far end of the court (opposite of the camera) it's definitely a little harder to see. Like I said, what's the big deal of changing the color if the traction is kept the same? I don't see how Madrid messed it up, why can't they take the clay and dye it blue without changing the traction?

 

[BreakPoint]

The answer seems to be that some kind of 'optic' blue would work with red clay.

I think the players would complain even more about using a blue ball than using a blue court. After all, all the hardcourt tournaments now already use blue courts so the players are used to the court color but they use yellow balls for ALL tournament no matter what type and color the court surface is, so to change the color of the ball to blue just for clay tournaments I think would bother the players even more.

 

[10is]

Tbh I find the red clay a lot easier on the eyes - much more comfortable to watch. My eyes grew tired after watching a few sets on this newfangled blue dirt.

So you discern Orange-Red as "less" harsher than Cyan-Blue. My my, what speshul eyes you must have.

 

[Deleted member 60695]

The answer seems to be that some kind of 'optic' blue would work with red clay.

Blue balls. Maybe that is why Nadal and Djokovic were so grumpy and whiny?

 

[Bartelby]

No we're talking about changing all red clay to blue because of ball visibility and I'm arguing that red clay should remain red in Spring, maybe with a ball change, and blue can be scheduled elsewhere.

we are talking here about the ball visibility buddy !!

 

[namelessone]

I honestly don't understand, what kind of tvs are you people watching on? I can see the ball perfectly. If you don't have HD then that's your own problem, and if you do and STILL can't see it...I don't know what's wrong. Go to the eye doctor or something.

Pretty much.

I didn't have a HD tv till recently and I watched clay matches fine in the beginning of the 00's, on a freaking analog signal no less.

Some people could be having eye problems I guess.

 

[Deleted member 21996]

I still can't see why they can't simply work on changing the colour of the ball. Tiriac intends to do this even for the blue clay.

What's the opposite of red clay on the colour spectrum? That's all you need to know to produce better visibility.

so, you want blue balls?

 

[purge]

complementary colors FTW

 

[Chyeaah]

I reckon AO was very easy to see. I can see the ball at all the slams... Red is fine. Blue clay is ugh, just get more green clay...

 

[NothingButNet]

The blue clay was a dramatic improvement - for the first time (not watching live) I could see 80% of the marks left by serves, groundies, etc. which is great

 

[Marius_Hancu]

Rome isn't so bad as MC on some years, but not on the level of clarity of Madrid.
Let's have a poll, but at the end of Rome only.

 

[nadal_slam_king]

I hope they keep it as well.

And the fact that Nadal wont be there makes it even better.

And Djokovic won't be there either. Actually I sense from their comments that Djokovic is even more upsset than Nadal.

 

[1970CRBase]

The clay courts can be any colour as long as they are blue.

The French Open, and its Tiriac Blue clay courts, shall also be managed by Ion Tiriac henceforth.

 

[Deleted member 21996]

And Djokovic won't be there either. Actually I sense from their comments that Djokovic is even more upsset than Nadal.

good. dont let the door hit them on the way out!

 

[Paul Murphy]

If they could get it to play like a standard red clay court then I'd be delighted to have all clay courts coloured blue.

 

[kragster]

so, you want blue balls?

Lmao, we must ask the players what they think of blue balls. Ees painful no?

 

[Bartelby]

Better than jaundiced balls!

so, you want blue balls?

 

[Rozroz]

blue clay all the way!
just make it slow and sticky for poor Nadal.

 

[Deleted member 21996]

Lmao, we must ask the players what they think of blue balls. Ees painful no?

lots of good looking girls in the court is never a good sign!

Better than jaundiced balls!

i wouldnt know!!! but please tell us more!!!

 

[McLovin]

I agree that it was easier to follow the ball on the blue clay, but does anyone else have a problem w/ the net? The same thing happened @ MC, where the camera angle was such that the sun reflects off the net and creates an aliasing effect. Drives me crazy.

 

[Praetorian]

Got no problem with a blue court (heck I play on one 3x a week). Also got no issues with a Red Court. Guess I'm just different in that I watch the players and not the court... LOL In all seriousness though, never had an issue with seeing the ball travel on either on TV. Maybe you need to calibrate yours a bit eh?

 

[Benhur]

Regarding the color itself, I am more or less neutral. On the one hand there is some improvement in contrast (though I have no difficulty seeing the ball on normal red clay). On the other hand, I would be nostalgic of the traditional color if it were eliminated. It's an old, venerable surface.

What needs to be determined here is whether the unusual slipperiness of these courts was related to the process of creating the blue clay, or if it was simply an unintended consequence of the way they laid the courts down, excessive compacting or whatever. There is conflicting information about this. They shoud test this thoroughly to ensure that in fact the blue clay behaves exactly the same as the red clay.

Applauding the unusual slipperiness just because it tends to shorten points and produce more “winners” is a pretty infantile reaction, but not a surprising one among the crowd of attention-impaired tennis fans who think that the quality of tennis increases in inverse relation to the average length of points, and that the ideal point duration should be roughly in the order of the duration of intercourse between rabbits.

Even if you like the very short points in ultra fast surfaces, the enthusiasm for the slipperiness is silly because here the "quickening" of the court is achieved mostly by crippling the movement of players, so it's mostly an illusion, and it is vulnerable to all kinds of reductio ad absurdum arguments. If the abundance of “winners” that so excite this childish crowd is achieved not by the quickness of the bounce but by putting a kind of leash on the player’s movement, well then a match between two severly lame players should become a festival of winners, and presumably a source of extasis to these puerile fans of expediency. Thinking people should reject it offhand, especially in the middle of the clay season leading to RG.

 

[thekingofkong]

in this case, I think madrid should change the clay color every year, maybe pink in next year, orange in 2013, violet in 2014,...since I think part of the owner's decision is to make madrid more special than other tournament, oh and much better ball visibility too hehehe

 

[Benhur]

in this case, I think madrid should change the clay color every year

Alternatively, there is simultaneous polychromy.

Barney Allis Plaza tennis, Kansas City:

 

[BevelDevil]

Another problem with red is that it's really not just red. It's also orange, pinkish, and whitish, depending on the texture and the sunlight.

The blue court seemed to have a more uniform color

the "quickening" of the court is achieved mostly by crippling the movement of players, so it's mostly an illusion

That's fine. Blue clay puts a premium on anticipation of the ball and anticipation of the movement of the opponent. That's probably a big reason why Federer did so well, anticipation is one of his strengths.

Tennis is not just a track and field event.

 

[TheCanadian]

I hope they keep the blue clay.

 

[RogerRacket111]

I totally agree. I'm watching on a 1080i HD TV with HD on Tennis Channel. Its hard to follow the ball at Rome. The blue only made this fact even more clear. I agree make all clay blue and make it less slippy.

 

[Nathaniel_Near]

I found the blue clay to be visually refreshing and superior, but the playing conditions probably need a little tweaking. Having said that, the way Nadal and Djokovic responded against the tournaments changes was somewhat infantile seeing as they basically threatened to boycott the tournament. The blue clay isn't really the problem, is it? The problem was the melding of the clay to the surface.

 

[Clarky21]

Another problem with red is that it's really not just red. It's also orange, pinkish, and whitish, depending on the texture and the sunlight.

The blue court seemed to have a more uniform color


That's fine. Blue clay puts a premium on anticipation of the ball and anticipation of the movement of the opponent. That's probably a big reason why Federer did so well, anticipation is one of his strengths.

Tennis is not just a track and field event.

I disagree. I think the blue clown clay had streaks of white through it where players attempted to slide,and that it made the ball slightly harder to see when the ball went over them.

 

[Nathaniel_Near]

I disagree. I think the blue clown clay had streaks of white through it where players attempted to slide,and that it made the ball slightly harder to see when the ball went over them.

By extension, are you implying that the ball is easier to see against the red clay on the whole?

 

[Benhur]

That's fine. Blue clay puts a premium on anticipation of the ball and anticipation of the movement of the opponent. That's probably a big reason why Federer did so well, anticipation is one of his strengths.

Tennis is not just a track and field event.

No, there are no tennis surfaces whose main asset or characteristic consists in being exceptionally slippery to the players. The closest thing might be wet grass on a very humid day, but even then you are allowed special shoes that are not permitted on clay, and the wetness is an exception. Or maybe a hard court when it’s beginning to get wet, but in that case play is quickly stopped. There is simply no precedent for a tennis surface based on slipperiness. It might be an interesting experimental surface for other slots in the tennis calendar, but as a central part of the clay season, two weeks before RG, it is totally absurd.

Maybe something new will emerge from these slippery ideas. I wonder, did hockey on skates evolve from field hockey or was it the other way around?

 

[thekingofkong]

Alternatively, there is simultaneous polychromy.

Barney Allis Plaza tennis, Kansas City:

LOL, good one

 

[Dave_D]

I think the thing is it's not that you can't see the ball on red clay, it's just that it's harder to follow. A night match on red clay is ok, but if the sun is shining on the court the ball blends in with the court a lot more.

Watching tennis on the blue clay was very nice, but they could easily just make the red clay courts a bit darker red, that would suffice.