2 questions related to the courts pros play on and the free one's in parks, schools, etc?

Question

1) The distance between the baseline and the fence on a pro court is almost double that of the free courts in parks, schools, etc. And, the pro's aces usually hit the fence after bouncing in the service box. Mine barely hits a couple of feet up the fence and that too not regularly. I know I'm a nobody and they are pro's however when I was in CO, I noticed on 1 set of courts I was able to hit much higher up the fence than the other set of courts. And the distance to the fence was the same on both set of courts.

So, can someone that's played on the same courts the pro's play on tell me if they are faster than what we get in parks and schools? This is all to do with hardcourts in USA.

2) Has anyone noticed the baseline is double the thickness on the pro courts than what we get in parks, schools? Are they trying to save on paint or something? I did however see 1 court in a park in NJ that had that same thick baseline as the pro courts.

Answer 1

1)  Yes.  Public courts are usually a bit slower than those that the pros play on.  And the court you were on where your serve bounced up higher was probable just a slightly different surface than other courts.  Basically, public courts are made fairly cheaply, but also made for durability through the weather.  The courts of places like the US Open are of higher quality construction, and are covered when it rains.  They also get resurfaced more often than local public courts.

2)  The baseline thickness all depends on where you are.  Our high school had the thicker lines at the baseline.  It's just a matter of the people who built/surfaced/painted the courts.

The thicker baseline is nice, though.  As a player on the court, close shots are harder to call on the baseline than on the sidelines.  You might have just been able to tell that the ball didn't bounce on the line, but not know which side of the line it was on.  The thicker line makes this more obvious.

Answer 2

I don't know what courts you have been playing on, but some things are just standard and there is (or should be) no difference between a court that the pros play on and one at your local park or school.

But first things first.  The distance between the baseline and the fence will vary from court to court depending on the available space.  There is no standard or rule for that distance.  Lots of parks and schools will have less space because they have to share space with other facilities or equipment.  Courts for pro events are purpose built and so do not have the same constraints.  As far as your ability to hit farther up the fence on one set of courts as opposed to another, there are plenty of factors at play that may have had nothing to do with the court itself, altitude, temperature, your physical condition (tired, energetic, etc.).  Of course, the court may have had something to do with it, too.

As far as the courts being faster, maybe, maybe not.  It all depends on the surface.  You can't make a blanket statement, because there are tons of different surfaces for hardcourts in the U.S.  Most public courts I played on used to be surfaced with plain asphalt (back in the 60's and 70's) which actually slowed the ball down because it was pretty rough.  I hated playing on asphalt because it was far from ideal as a tennis surface.  There are still a few of those around, but for the most part, public courts today use something like DecoTurf or a similar material which is laid over asphalt or concrete to provide a smoother, more consistent surface.  Depending on what brand of surface is used, the underlying structure, the finish - and most important the condition of the courts, they could be faster or slower than what the pros use.

As far as the thickness of the lines, the lines are supposed to be 2" (.051 meters) by rule.  Any thinner, and they are not regulation.  I have not encountered any courts with thinner lines and I only play on public courts.  I have never played in NJ, so I don't know what the courts are like up there, but it sounds like they just slapped some courts down and didn't really care if they were regulation or not.

So, here's the deal.  If a public park has a well maintained tennis area and has put some real money into it, generally, the performance of the courts will be no different than what the pros play on.  I live in a suburb of Atlanta, GA and have played at the Stone Mountain Tennis Center which is where the tennis event at the 1996 Olympics was held.  It is a public facility and very well maintained, and I can say from experience that it is no different play wise than any of the other well maitained set of courts in my area.  And that's the thing - the pros aren't playing on some magical surface that the rest of us can never play on (unless you count Wimbledon and Roland Garros which aren't hard courts anyway), most of us have access to nice courts (I guess unless you live in NJ, lol), provided the parks have the funding to keep them up.