Optimal Court Speed for Fan/Viewer at Home

[redpurusha]

A lot of us like and miss the variety of the various surfaces and are dismayed by the recent homogenization of the surfaces. Lets look at both sides.

The Serving Bots days often I read here about, we don't want to see (points end way too fast). But now with the crazy spin/grind dominance of the game, I know a lot of us don't like to watch that extreme end of the spectrum of 5-6 hr matches of baseline bashing until the lesser player gets an UE. What I want to ask and find out, what do you think would be a good level of speed that's not one of the extremes, is this even possible. This is coming from a fan's point of view of wanting to see an entertaining match (not someone who's a pro player who's mastered a specific game style and obviously just wants to win and whatever that surface entails/or a fan who just wants their player to win).

I found this site of a tennis court surface company that lists some 5 levels of surfaces for tennis courts. 1: Slow, 2. Slow-Medium, 3. Medium, 4. Medium-Fast, 5. Fast. http://www.sportmaster.net/tennis.shtml#

No sure how this particular set up corresponds to official courts of the WTA/ATP but would it be safe to say that most of the courts/ US Open, are "Medium" now? If so, wouldn't it make for better tennis (from a fan's/viewer's perspective) to make the courts Medium-Fast at least, (we don't want the super fast days of ServBots hitting ace after ace), but this would better than what we have now?

I'm new to the tennis surfacing technology and I could be missing something and totally off here. If you guys know what speed the US Open courts are now in relation to what this tennis company is making, enlighten me and I'd love to hear your opinion on what you think would make for best tennis to watch at home (not too long, not too short), unless you want to see one of the extremes.

 

[redpurusha]

The balls, US Open balls are heavier.. which add to the slow down. If they could just switch one of these factors, thaaat'd be great.

 

[amx13]

FO-Slow as hell, Aus- Medium, USO Fast, Wimby- Fast as hell...that would be nice

 

[FrontHeadlock]

I think any surface speed that doesn't give an extreme benefit to the server is fine.

It's ok to have winners and the like, and to have shorter rallies. It's bad to have 1-2 shot points all the time, or to have big servers not feel pressure on their service games.

 

[CRWV]

Don't hate the fast surfaces, hate the Isners, Karlovics, and Ivanisevics of the world...

 

[yemenmocha]

Many of us here just want a proper BALANCE of surfaces like we had in previous decades - the clay was slow, the hardcourts varied but were rather medium (fast by today's standards) and the grass as well as indoor carpet was fast (very fast by today's standards).

Bring back a true variety.

 

[objectivity]

Many of us here just want a proper BALANCE of surfaces like we had in previous decades - the clay was slow, the hardcourts varied but were rather medium (fast by today's standards) and the grass as well as indoor carpet was fast (very fast by today's standards).

Bring back a true variety.

yes that is true in an ideal world. unfortunately in the real world, with modern rackets and string technologies, matches played on really fast courts inevitably descend into serve-fests. and that hurts viewership. no tournament organizer in his/her right mind will want to do that.