Tennis Random, Random (On Court)

[ti-amie]

From the Google:

What are green clay tennis courts made of?
A green clay (or Har-Tru) court actually plays more like a hard court than a red clay court. It's composed of crushed basalt, a natural green stone from Virginia, instead of red clay's brick, limestone and gravel.Apr 11, 2017

[ti-amie]

[ti-amie]

[Liamvalid]

Does Murray fit on that list?

[JazzNU]

From the Google:

What are green clay tennis courts made of?
A green clay (or Har-Tru) court actually plays more like a hard court than a red clay court. It's composed of crushed basalt, a natural green stone from Virginia, instead of red clay's brick, limestone and gravel.Apr 11, 2017

I mean, this is from Wikipedia:

Green clay, also known by the brand names Rubico and Har-Tru, is similar to coarse red clay, but is made from crushed metabasalt rather than brick,[4] making the surface slightly harder and faster. Green clay is packed to make the subsurface. It is then covered with a topping.


You discount green clay results. I don't. I stand by what I said . Green clay court results are discounted when people want to do that, especially by TV commentators, and used when they want to reinforce a good clay court player's results. There's a lot of overlap between winners and runners up at Charleston and those performing very well at RG, so I don't personally get why this narrative powers on, but I'm not here to argue about it either.

[ponchi101]

I am sorry, but whoever wrote that a har-tru court plays more like a hard court than red clay simply has to explain to me his style of play. The difference between har-tru and red clay is negligible, to me. I will say that the difference between balls will be way more marked.
You can slide in har-tru easily, and the ball is slower. I really like to play on har-tru (the club I belonged to in Caracas had 5 har-tru courts) so I played there for years.
It is a puzzling comment, to me.

[dmforever]

From the Google:

What are green clay tennis courts made of?
A green clay (or Har-Tru) court actually plays more like a hard court than a red clay court. It's composed of crushed basalt, a natural green stone from Virginia, instead of red clay's brick, limestone and gravel.Apr 11, 2017

I mean, this is from Wikipedia:

Green clay, also known by the brand names Rubico and Har-Tru, is similar to coarse red clay, but is made from crushed metabasalt rather than brick,[4] making the surface slightly harder and faster. Green clay is packed to make the subsurface. It is then covered with a topping.


You discount green clay results. I don't. I stand by what I said . Green clay court results are discounted when people want to do that, especially by TV commentators, and used when they want to reinforce a good clay court player's results. There's a lot of overlap between winners and runners up at Charleston and those performing very well at RG, so I don't personally get why this narrative powers on, but I'm not here to argue about it either.

I agree with Jazz on this one. I played on clay courts in Italy and in Colombia. The Colombian clay courts I played on were vastly different from the Italian clay courts (sandier, not made from crushed brick, slipperier, a thinner coating of the crushed clay) and yet they are considered "real" clay courts. I don't know if the clay courts in South American pro tournaments are the same as the ones I played on in Colombia (which were at a fancy club that I couldn't afford, but that's another story ), but I'm guessing they are at least similar to those. The green clay can't be more different from the European red clay and the South American clay is from the European clay. It's all clay.

Kevin

[ti-amie]

Sabalenka will be reducing her on court time by focusing on singles and less on doubles.

[ti-amie]

Per "Spiceboy" there will be 2 tournaments in Charleston in consecutive weeks. The original WTA 500 and this WTA 250 the week after replacing both the Chinese WTA and the Fed Cup finals.
I miss the Amelia Island tournament.

[ponchi101]

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I agree with Jazz on this one. I played on clay courts in Italy and in Colombia. The Colombian clay courts I played on were vastly different from the Italian clay courts (sandier, not made from crushed brick, slipperier, a thinner coating of the crushed clay) and yet they are considered "real" clay courts. I don't know if the clay courts in South American pro tournaments are the same as the ones I played on in Colombia (which were at a fancy club that I couldn't afford, but that's another story ), but I'm guessing they are at least similar to those. The green clay can't be more different from the European red clay and the South American clay is from the European clay. It's all clay.

Kevin

The clay courts here in Colombia have a base layer of simple dirt/earth, to keep the prices down. I have even played in a place where the courts were really earth, compacted.
I doubt that we have courts here in Colombia that are like anything in Europe. The one court I played on in France was luxurious, in comparison.

[ponchi101]

On another subject.
Novak has made it to the finals of a slam after saying that he had tore a muscle and that, had it not been a Slam, he would have retired.
How did that affect the betting lines? I, for example, chose Zverev over him in predictions because I thought he would not be physically fit.

[dmforever]

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I agree with Jazz on this one. I played on clay courts in Italy and in Colombia. The Colombian clay courts I played on were vastly different from the Italian clay courts (sandier, not made from crushed brick, slipperier, a thinner coating of the crushed clay) and yet they are considered "real" clay courts. I don't know if the clay courts in South American pro tournaments are the same as the ones I played on in Colombia (which were at a fancy club that I couldn't afford, but that's another story ), but I'm guessing they are at least similar to those. The green clay can't be more different from the European red clay and the South American clay is from the European clay. It's all clay.

Kevin

The clay courts here in Colombia have a base layer of simple dirt/earth, to keep the prices down. I have even played in a place where the courts were really earth, compacted.
I doubt that we have courts here in Colombia that are like anything in Europe. The one court I played on in France was luxurious, in comparison.

Exactly The place that I played at in Colombia was a pretty swanky club, so my point was that probably the courts that the pros play on in South America are more similar to those courts than European clay courts, and yet there is no asterisk by those clay courts. I think you are agreeing with me, right?

Kevin

[ponchi101]

Sure. The other thing about clay: they all play really different. Perhaps the posh-est club in South America (tennis wise) is the Buenos Aires Tennis Club, where the BA Open is played. A gorgeous place, with top notch courts. I doubt the place I play has courts like those. So clay changes a lot and that is part of the appeal.
Har-tru changes a lot too. And go tell Orantes, Connors and Vilas that their US Opens on har-tru at Forest Hills have an asterisk

[ti-amie]

They started to talk about the difference between South American red clay and European red clay a couple of years ago. I'm a dedicated watcher of the Golden Swing.

[Deuce]

I have even played in a place where the courts were really earth, compacted.

^ That's nothing - I've heard that there have been a few courts made that have not only earth, but they even allow grass to grow from it!
On a tennis court!

Who came up with that crazy idea?