Tennis Courts

Tennis is always played on a flat surface that is rectangularly shaped. A tennis court is 78 feet long however the width of the court changes depending on the game you are playing. For instance, when playing singles the width of a tennis court is 78 feet, however, when playing doubles the width of a tennis court becomes 36 feet. A single tennis court can be used to play either singles or doubles depending on the situation. Below is a picture of a tennis court showing the different lines and their lengths:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tennis_court

There are four main types of surfaces used in tennis courts. The surfaces are clay, hard, grass and carpet.

Clay courts are made using crushed stone or brick and come in two different types- red clay which is the more common and green clay which is a harder type. Red clay is mainly made of crushed brick and is the type of court used in the French Open. Green clay is made of crushed basalt and is more compact and therefore harder than red clay courts. Clay courts are slow courts because the ball bounces higher on them giving the players more time to reach the ball. While clay courts are cheap and easy to install, maintaining clay courts can be an expensive and time consuming job. Clay courts need to be regularly monitored for their water balance and need to be rolled regularly.

Hard courts are usually made of hard materials such as concrete or asphalt and covered with acrylic material to provide some cushioning and seal the surface. Tennis on hard courts is usually a medium fast to fast paced game because the surface of the court does not allow for much absorbtion of the energy coming form the tennis ball. However, the speed of the game can vary depending on the amount of sand on top of the surface- the more sand the slower the game because there is more friction. Hard courts are maintained using various methods including power washing, chemical treatments and brushing. Some major tennis tournaments that use hard courts as their surfaces are the Australian Open and the US Open.

Grass Courts as the name suggests are played on various types of grasses. They can be quite difficult and expensive to maintain. For example, without a proper cover for the rain, grass courts can become extremely slippery and must be left for at least a day in order to fully dry. Balls on grass courts do not usually bounce higher than knee height so players need to get to the ball quickly when playing on grass courts. Wimbledon is the only one of the five grand slam tournaments to be played on grass, giving it a unique aspect.



Carpet Courts are woven or non-woven removable strips made from polymeric and rubber materials.
There are two main types of carpet courts- an outdoor one made with turf and covered with sand, and an indoor one made of nylon and rubber. Tennis on carpet courts is played extremely fast.