The Association of Tennis Professionals published a graphic with the court speed of the Master 1000 tournaments and of the ATP finals.
Tennis surfaces have been slowed down a lot in the last few years to support longer rallies and a more entertaining game, so that the serve and volley has almost disappeared and few players look for the net.
The court speed was divided in “Fast”, “Medium Fast”, “Medium”, “Medium Slow” and “Slow”, calculating a coefficient which depends on friction(μ) and restitution(e). CPI= 100(1-μ) + 150(0,81 -e)
Looking at the results, we can see that there are no tournaments with a “Fast” surface, and only one with a “Medium Fast” one, which is Shanghai. The Chinese Master 1000 has by far the quickest surface, at 43,8, and it is not a case if Mischa Zverev, who has a very offensive game, just reached the quarterfinals.
Toronto (35,2) and Cincinnati (35,1), which used to have very fast surfaces, have “Medium” courts (close to “Medium Slow”), while Miami (33,1) and Indian Wells (30,0) are “Medium Slow”, as well as the Atp Finals in London (34,0). But the most surprising thing is that Paris-Bercy, the only Master 1000 that is played indoors, is “Slow” (29,9), with a similar surface to Indian Wells. As Bercy is yet to be played this year, the surface of 2015 edition is likely to have been considered here.
Between the clay-court tournaments, Madrid (22,5) is slower that Monte-Carlo (23,7) and Rome (24,0), but they are all “Slow”. However, Madrid is played on altitude, so the ball is fast in the air.
It will be interesting to see if the fast courts come back to the tennis circuit in the next seasons…
