Steve Healy reveals plans to develop clay courts in Australia
The tennis officials in Australia, who have been criticized on a variety of occasions for having feet of clay are at last set to make use of the surface to kick-start a revolution in tennis.
Steve Healy, who is the President of the Tennis Australia, has made an announcement on Monday morning highlighting the plans to develop world class quality clay courts in order to assist the rising tennis players in Australia to be able to play at the highest level on the surface.
The Tennis Australia will spend a total of one million dollars to develop and maintain eight clay courts at the redeveloped Melbourne Park complex in Australia. The President also encouraged some more clay courts to be constructed in other states.
Steve further added that the investment in high-cost clay surfaces was important for providing a platform for the rising talent. The new courts would help them compete the top level at their very best.
"Clay courts are the Sheffield Shield of Australian. It isn't going to make money, but it's a critical part of player development. We want to ensure at the national high performance academy level there are clay courts in every state so we can develop our juniors on clay,” said Healy on Monday.
Clay surfaces which are relatively slower and have a greater level of bounce than Australia's more prevalent hard ones are also famous for teaching the players with higher degree of patience and better shot selection on the court.
“So much of the game is now played on clay. And it is also important to minimize injuries among our young players as it is well proven that it is a more forgiving surface. I would really like to see more people playing tennis, that is absolutely key," reflected the President.
Over thirty premier level ATP and WTA Championships these days are contested on clay courts all over the world, highlighted by the third Grand Slam of the season, the French Open.
According to Healy, development of the clay courts in Australia will help the young local players to become stronger, participate at the top level and eventually reach the highest rankings on the tour.
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