What impact does the surface have to the tennis ball and to the speed?

Question

What impact does the surface have to the tennis ball and to the speed?

Answer 1

The speed of the ball is highly affected by the kind of surface a tennis court is made of. Technically, grass is the fastest surface among the Grand Slam tournaments. The ball tends to bounce lower and more often skid. So serve and volley players thrive in these courts. That's Wimbledon for you. The International Tennis Hall of Fame in Rhode Island also has grass courts. Very few remaining grass courts in the world because they're very expensive to maintain. Hard courts are also considered fast courts. Hard courts can be "plexicushion" used in the Australian Open or the "decoturf" used at the US Open. The plexicushion is the slower of the two because its softer. The ball's impact on the court is absorbed thereby slowing the ball up. The clay is obviously the slowest because dirt tends to get deposited in the felt. This slows down the ball and the ball gets heavier thereby slowing the ball even more. There is a surface that's the fastest of them all, yes even faster than grass. It's wood!  No major tournament uses this surface anymore because it's rediculously fast. It's even unheard of.  Then there's the carpet for indoor tournaments. Speed depends on the thickness of the carpet as well the the texture of the fibers. Rubber surfaces are considered carpet just so you know.

Answer 2

The surface has a huge effect on the tennis ball and the speed.

Grass courts are called "fast courts" because the ball comes off of them quicker and it bounces lower. Clay courts are considered the slowest courts because the ball bounces pretty high off of the ground; that's why clay court rallies are usually longer than other surfaces. Also, clay can make the balls heavier as the dust can attach itself to the ball, or if there is moisture in the court, the ball can absorb the moisture. This will obviously make the ball heavier and slower and harder to hit.

Hard courts are generally just like a standard sort of bounce; the ball isn't affected greatly. They're slower than grass but faster than clay.

Answer 3

speed varies with surface