'Grass is playing like clay' - Wimbledon's 'slow' courts

BBC News

12 hours ago

Wimbledon 2025Venue: All England Club Dates: 30 June-13 JulyCoverage: Live across BBC TV, radio and online with extensive coverage on BBC iPlayer, Red Button, Connected TVs and mobile app. Full coverage guide.
Conditions have been tough for the players at Wimbledon, but for some it is not just the high temperatures making things difficult - it is also the grass they are playing on.Several of those competing at the Grand Slam this week have said the balls are bouncing differently, while one player said it is like playing on clay - traditionally a much slower surface.It has been an especially hot start to the tournament, with Monday setting a record for the warmest opening day when the temperature reached 32.3C, while the mercury rose to 33.4C on Tuesday.Defending women's champion Barbora Krejcikova voiced her thoughts on the surface after battling back to win her opening match against Alexandra Eala."There's not enough water, and it gets really, really yellow, very, very fast," she said."I think with the heat, yes, the grass is more like stopping. The game is just different [to] what you are normally used to."
'This isn't grass anymore' - what have players said?
Canadian Denis Shapovalov, the number 27 seed at Wimbledon, was knocked out by Argentina's Mariano Navone in the first round.He was broken six times by his opponent as he suffered his earliest exit at the tournament since 2019."The balls are the worst, the grass tour has turned into a joke," he said after his defeat."This isn't grass anymore, the court is slower than a clay one. It's not even grass."Two-time champion Petra Kvitova said things had changed over the years."I'm not sure if it's only grass," she said after her final appearance at the All England Club ended in a defeat by 10th seed Emma Navarro. "Maybe it's the balls, as well. Overall it's getting slower."Eight top-10 seeded players have exited in the first round - the highest tally at a single Grand Slam event in the Open era.Among those to be knocked out was American third seed Jessica Pegula, who said the courts at Wimbledon "felt different" but added: "That's grass – they're all kind of different. It's a living surface, they're not going to play the same."Poland's former world number one Iga Swiatek, who beat Russian Polina Kudermetova 7-5 6-1 in her first-round match, feels the Wimbledon courts are playing slower but expects things to change in the coming days."It [Wimbledon] was slower, and kind of more slippery with the movement," she said. "But also with the heat and everything the ball bounced differently than how it will in the coming days, so I'm not really focusing on that. "With the change of the weather we will have to adjust every day to the different conditions."
What is the effect of slower courts?
Slower courts lead to longer rallies as players have more time on the ball. It can therefore also lead to longer matches, which can be more physically draining for players.Former doubles player Dom Inglot told BBC Sport that courts had been getting slower since 2001. Before that, you would see players hitting serve and volley predominantly rather than the long baseline rallies you more often see now.He believes part of the change is down to Wimbledon wanting to make the courts more aesthetically appealing after years where the courts looked very worn by the second week, while also wanting to deliver a better spectacle for fans."The idea was Wimbledon had to compete with the great rallies you were seeing at the Australian Open, US Open, French Open," he said. "Serve and volley all the time was getting a bit mundane so they wanted more rallies and so there was discussion of do you change balls, do you change the court and I think they went with both."Inglot has been playing with this year's Wimbledon ball on hard courts and has found it is playing differently to last year's, and therefore expects that to be the case on grass.He also said the surfaces at different grass tournaments would play differently - including at the Wimbledon qualifying event at Roehampton and Queen's - and so doing well on those surfaces may not translate to doing well at the All England Club. A slower surface means players need to adapt their tactics. "It was ridiculous to think you could hit a kick serve that would jump off the surface like a kick works on clay or hard courts – that was not imaginable 10 years ago, now kick is working," he said."It used to be slice serves and flat serves but now you're using kick serves because you're starting to get the ball moving away from opponents."
What type of grass is used at Wimbledon?
Wimbledon has not commented on whether this year's courts are slower than in previous years. Since 2001 the Wimbledon grass is comprised of perennial pyegrass, which is said to have the durability and strength to withstand the wear of the modern game.Wimbledon's official website says that during the tournament the height of grass is eight millimetres and is cut every day, while a "little bit of water" is put on the courts overnight.A number of factors affect the speed of a court which include the compacting of the soil over time, as well as the weather before and during the event.Warm and dry days should make a ball lighter and faster, while cold and damp days would make it seem heavier and slower.The soil, it says, largely determines the bounce of ball, not the grass.There have been no changes to the specification of the ball since 1995, when there was a very minimal alteration in compression.