Should old tennis tournaments like Wimbledon keep grass courts or switch to paved surfaces?

Grass

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by Adam Went

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Wimbledon should keep to playing on grass as it is the oldest competition of the tennis tour Grand Slams. The full title of Wimbledon is The All England Croquet and Tennis Club. Just imagine trying to play croquet on clay or hard court. Grass is its history and must stay its future.

Many top tennis players have said that they feel Wimbledon is the home of tennis and is therefore the one Grand Slam everyone wants to win. Hard courts have the clinical angles and speed whilst clay slows the tempo of the game down. Grass seems to combine the two in an unpredictable way, the speed of serve not slowing down after the bounce and the surface being unpredictable in its own unique way.

Grass, even though it can keep the speed of serves and a heavy handed fore/back hand, once it becomes dried up acts a bit like clay and slows the speed down. When it is wet, it becomes slippery and that too can affect the outcome of a match.

It's here I now get to my point.

On grass the players must not only overcome their opponents but also the nature of the surface whether its dry or wet, fast or slow. The results make for a good read. Pete Sampras is undoubtably the best exponent of the grass court in the last 20 years but even he crashed out in the first round to someone over 300 places below him in the rankings.

Wimbledon is and must stay a grass court for these reasons.

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