'22 RG Day 2 OoP & Discussion

[meganfernandez]

I have my doubts about it. Bencic is weak on clay...

Understandable. Would you say she's WEAK on clay, or just weaker than she is on hard court? She won the French juniors, plus Charleston this year, which is halfway between red clay and hard court. Per Marc Lucero, the Roland Garros courts are playing somewhat like a hard court. In his latest podcast, he emphasized how different the RG courts are from other tour stop on clay, because of the incredibly high quality. All of which is to explain why I'm taking Bencic over Andreescu.

[Suliso]

I guess I'm mostly going by her never having reached past the 3rd round here. That clay title in Charleston is her only career clay final at WTA level. Of course Andreescu is no clay dinamo either.

[ponchi101]

...

Understandable. Would you say she's WEAK on clay, or just weaker than she is on hard court? She won the French juniors, plus Charleston this year, which is halfway between red clay and hard court. Per Marc Lucero, the Roland Garros courts are playing somewhat like a hard court. In his latest podcast, he emphasized how different the RG courts are from other tour stop on clay, because of the incredibly high quality. All of which is to explain why I'm taking Bencic over Andreescu.

I would like somebody to explain that to me. Other than the top pros being able to slide on hard courts now, how can a clay court play like a hard?
IATA, I know, these people know more about this sport than I do, but I just don't get it.
Next thing: "This NASCAR race feels like a F1 track."

[meganfernandez]

...

Understandable. Would you say she's WEAK on clay, or just weaker than she is on hard court? She won the French juniors, plus Charleston this year, which is halfway between red clay and hard court. Per Marc Lucero, the Roland Garros courts are playing somewhat like a hard court. In his latest podcast, he emphasized how different the RG courts are from other tour stop on clay, because of the incredibly high quality. All of which is to explain why I'm taking Bencic over Andreescu.

I would like somebody to explain that to me. Other than the top pros being able to slide on hard courts now, how can a clay court play like a hard?
IATA, I know, these people know more about this sport than I do, but I just don't get it.
Next thing: "This NASCAR race feels like a F1 track."

The bounce and ball speed, I guess. He said the kick serve is grabbing really well (but that could have been about the balls, which he also discussed, because he said they play very differently than the ATP balls). I don't know if that's congruent with clay playing like a hard court - to me, that sounds classically clay. Doesn't a kick serve bounce even higher on clay? I'll try to go back to the podcast and see if he said more. It's a short podcast.