It’s safe to say that grass isn’t the most popular surface in tennis. Ever since former world No.1 Manuel Santana coined the famous phrase that “Grass is just for cows”, many other players have echoed it. These players include the likes of Ivan Lendl, Marat Safin, Marcelo Ríos, and even Jan Kodeš, who like Santana, won Wimbledon on the surface. Gael Monfils has also recently expressed his dislike of grass, saying that “it is hard for me to play solid tennis because I can’t move, I actually can’t move. I don’t feel comfortable”.
Until 1975, the US Open was staged on grass, and until 1988, so was the Australian Open. And for years now there have been calls for Wimbledon to follow suit and switch to hard court, but The All England Club has stubbornly kept the Slam on grass. This year’s Wimbledon is yet to have a Santana comment, but inevitably at some point, there will be some sort of rumblings of complaint at press conferences about the grass. Last year’s Championships were particularly exposed to criticism, as a record breaking amount of players withdrew due to injury or illness and some of these were as a result of players taking a tumble out on court. This sparked heavy questioning on the conditions of the courts and therefore naturally put the essential concept of playing tennis on grass at all, under scrutiny. So should grass be left for the cows? Is Wimbledon and The All England Club just keeping hold of a rapidly ageing and unsafe tradition?
Wimbledon Grass
With Wimbledon now the last Grand Slam standing that uses grass, the surface is often associated with England itself as a result. Additionally, some of the bigger build up tournaments to Wimbledon are held in the country, such as Queens, Eastbourne, Edgbaston and the Aegon Trophy in Nottingham. So the natural assumption would be that with all these grass court events in England, there surely must be an abundance of them all over the country? However, this assumption couldn’t be more wrong.
Grass courts in England have been widely lost and replaced with artificial courts – mostly hard courts in the variation of acrylic or tarmac. Not only are grass courts difficult to maintain, they are only usable for a few months during the summer, and even then it is dependent on a spell of good weather which doesn’t come often in the notoriously unreliable British summer. So they cost more money to maintain than a hard court and they bring in less money as they can barely be played on. Good grass courts just aren’t feasible for smaller clubs, and have therefore become as much a part of the past as wooden racquets and white tennis balls.
Again then, should grass be played on at all on the professional tour? Being a junior tennis player myself I can safely say that the opportunities for young players to train let alone compete on the surface are limited to say the least. And that’s in Britain, the country with the most grass courts in the world. I can’t imagine how little juniors in other parts of the world get to play on them, if at all. So if juniors, the future of professional tennis, can’t even play on them, should the pros be playing on them either? And as the professional grass court season only spans a mere four weeks, the pros likewise don’t play on them often. Compared to the hard and clay court seasons, the grass season is a tiny speck on the tennis calendar.
Personally, in spite of all the down sides of grass, I think it should continue to be used. Call me a traditionalist but it was the original surface that the modern game of tennis was played on and to change the surface of Wimbledon after 128 years of grass would be a tragedy. I have also had the privilege to play on Centre Court at Devonshire Park, where the Eastbourne ATP and WTA events are held, and it was truly breathtaking, and I’m not referring to the surroundings, I’m making reference to the court. Every bounce was perfect and the surface was as soft as a cushion underfoot.
Playing on such an incredible grass court also opened my eyes to how much adjustment is needed technically and physically when playing on grass. It is a completely different game. And I think that is also visible when watching the players competing at Wimbledon. Tennis participation has always been a concern and it has always lived in the shadow (in terms of popularity) of football. So if we want this to change then I think it is imperative that more people watch the sport, and retaining this variation of surfaces will be and is vital in achieving that.
Apart from a few, the majority of players do actually enjoy the grass of Wimbledon as well – for the majority, the challenge to adjust their game come Wimbledon, is worth it to compete and have the chance to play on grass. Now SW19 will be commencing a week later next year, there may also be more grass court tournaments appearing in the build up to Wimbledon. So the cows may have to wait for the grass for some time yet.
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