Newly Resurfaced Tennis Courts-What do I need to know?

What is resurfacing?  About every 6-8 years for an outdoor court and 8-12 years for an indoor court you need to resurface as a way to properly maintain your tennis courts.  The tennis court surface, the “paint”, that is on top of the asphalt or concrete breaks down over time due to natural wear and tear that comes with tennis courts.  The grit that you feel on a newly resurfaced court is the sand that is mixed in with the paint and over time this wears off and the surface gets faster and faster.  If the court gets too fast it really rewards the player with the big serve and big groundstroke’s as the ball won’t bounce as high and points will end quicker, but the courts will also start to look bad.  How does the resurfacing slow the court down and how can I adapt my game to be more successful on it?

            Whenever you resurface a tennis court you will slow it down, there is no way around this.  Think of a clay court, which is the slowest surface that the professionals play on; it’s typically a type of sand/dirt (har-tru/green) or crushed brick (red).  When a ball hits on this surface, it slows down.  The ball bites the surface more and causes it to bounce higher therefore slowing it down.  This is why you can see some really long rallies at the French Open.  When the court surface slows the ball down significantly it makes it hard to put the ball away because you know your opponent will be able to run down the ball and get it back into play.  On the opposite end of the spectrum is the grass courts at Wimbledon, which are very fast courts and the ball doesn’t bounce that high and it’s much easier to end points.  The grit that you feel in our newly resurfaced courts is the sand in the paint, it’s not quite as extreme as the clay courts but you will notice a difference to the old surface that has worn away. 

            How can I gain an advantage from this?  Wouldn’t it be great if all our Silver Lake players knew how to adjust to our slower courts, it potentially could help us win league titles and tournament matches.  What do I need to know?

            First and foremost, gear up for longer points, improve your fitness/stamina level.  The baseline groundstroke’s become more important as service aces and outright groundstroke winners will be fewer and farther between.  Playing on slow or gritty courts takes patience, endurance and some thought.  If you try to force things and go to the net too soon, it will be easier to pass you because the court slows down your approach shot or serve.  If you want to avoid the longer side to side rallies that are likely to occur change the rhythm up by mixing up your spins and depth, move your opponent in and out, it can get your opponent to miss or make the error.  Your new goal is to be more consistent than your opponent.   A pusher or retriever loves this slow surface.  It will take some thought on how to beat this player if you typically struggle playing against the pusher style.  The drop shot is really effective at the French Open because the surface almost stops the ball from going any further than the bounce.  On the hard-court, the drop shot after setting it up with a very deep shot can be very effective.

            To summarize, in order to use the newly resurfaced courts to your advantage work on your stamina for longer rallies and your groundstroke’s and drop shots to move your opponent in and out and overall being patient and willing to construct the point.  Understand that the new surface will slow your power ball down and make the ball bounce higher, therefore giving the player more time to get the ball.  Now would be a great time to work on your Semi-western grip for your forehand and your backhand slice in order to deal with balls out of your strike zone.  While we’re at it, a kick serve will kick up a little bit more on newly resurfaced courts and provide you a nice alternative to your power serve which will suffer a little in terms of speed.  Enjoy the new courts; let’s use it to our advantage.

By: Mark Bergman, Silver Lake Tennis Director