The Championships at Wimbledon*

This past Monday the Championships at Wimbledon* at the All England Club opened its gates to the top tennis players in the world. As many of you are aware Wimbledon is one of the four grand slam tournaments, and quite possibly the most prestigious of the four. There are several things in my mind that make Wimbledon the tournament it is; etiquette, tradition, and GRASS.

Wimbledon is one of very few tournaments on the ATP schedule played on grass and the only of the slams played on the "slick" surface. True grass is a very difficult surface to play tennis on, because unlike many other sports played on a field, tennis relies entirely on the balls ability to bounce.

This is what makes Wimbledon so special because grass as compared to the other surfaces that tennis is played on (hard courts and clay) provides a low, fast skid, instead of a truer bounce that would be provided by a clay or hard court. Because of this type of bounce, in the past (and by past I mean a decade or more ago) play was dominated by quick points and the serve and volley style.

However in recent years the grass has been changed to provided more durability over the two weeks of play, but this change has had a major side-effect on the style of play at the championships.

In 2001 The All England Club, did and over haul and tore out all the courts and planted new ones. The old courts had been a mixture of 70 percent rye and 3o percent creeping red fescue, while the new courts are 100% perennial rye. This new grass is more durable and allows the grounds crew to keep the soil drier and firmer, but this in turn causes the ball to bounce higher and not penetrate through the court as much.

This change in the surface is detrimental to the traditional serve and volley style of play that one would be accustomed to seeing on grass courts in the past. The higher Bounce allows modern players with longer swings attack the ball off the return of serve much more easily.

Here is an example in the change on Roger federer's serve from 2003 to 2008, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soJ_FVnijAw; this shows the huge change in the position from which a player could return serve.

It also allows players to stay on the baseline and rally rather than being forced to attack and come to the net. The predominant wear and tear on the court now takes place on the baseline, rather than on the service line as it used to.

Over the past several years we have seen baseliners able to move far or even in the dreaded occasion win at the All England Club (e.g. Lleyton Hewitt and Rafael Nadal). Even Roger Federer, this era's most dominant (grass) player has become more reluctant to come to net because of players abilities to pass him.

Today with the advancement in racket and string technology, the serve and volley style of play is difficult enough, as players are able to hit better shots from worse positions.

The slowing of the grass courts is just another step towards a universal style of play where players bang the ball from the baseline, with very little, if any individuality. Unfortunately it appears that day is rapidly approaching, as most of Wimbledon's officials are willing to cater to TV and viewer ratings.

Where is there sense of pride and tradition that they claim to have? I do understand the needs for the courts to be able to handle all the play they receive during the championships, but I feel that they need to come up with a different solution and keep this surface's unique qualities alive.