Preparing for the French Open

Like an artist painting a fresh canvas, the grounds staff at Roland Garrros creates a masterpiece each spring as they prepare the clay courts for the French Open. Its spring time in Paris and I have the unique opportunity to watch these modern day Picasso’s as they prepare to “paint” another exciting chapter in the history of tennis. This will be the only place and time in my experience with clay where I come to appreciate art over science as the renovation of center court begins.

The pristine red surface is blended into the limestone layer below as the week-long process gets under way. The court turns from red to pink under the hum of a diesel powered tractor, sawing its way along the old baselines. The entire surface is “fluffed” up at least 2”. Followed by a series of hand-leveling and rolling cycles, the “artists” push old wooden lutes back and forth to smooth and level the playing surface while the court is rolled firm.

Then by instinct the court is deemed ready for several new layers of fresh brick dust or “brick broken”. Skillfully thrown across the court with a hand shovel and the flick of the wrist, the brick dust lands in a perfect fan shape across the court.

According to the Federation Francaise de Tennis, the coloring layer serves 3 functions: to avoid players being disturbed by light reverberating on the limestone, to ensure sufficient contrast between the ground and the ball and to reconcile sliding and pushing off.

The court is hand-watered, dragged and rolled a few times over between “brick broken” applications. A total of 1-1/2 tons of brick dust will be applied to achieve a certain and unscientific “look” and “feel”. A single coating of linseed oil is applied with paint brushes prior to spraying on the line paint. The canvas is complete and center court is ready for a new day.

It looks as though the French Open will get off to a warm and sunny start this weekend. The remainder of next week however is forecasted to keep my friends on the grounds crew busy. I have learned much from these “artists”. I will think of them often as I watch a new chapter unfold in the history of Roland Garros.

Ed MonteCalvo
Consulting Services Manager
Lee Tennis Court Products

Clay Court Tennis on the rise in China

After four days of a massive Sports Trade Show in Beijing it is very apparent that Tennis in general and Clay Courts in particular are now part of the Tennis scene. It reminded me of the old days in Miami as to how busy we were at the booth and the people who wanted to find out about Clay Courts. We showed our above ground Har-tru court in a model, our American Red in a HydroCourt model, and both our Green Har-tru and a European Red Clay in ClayTech models. It was really interesting to see the reactions and the whole point was to establish our partner Chai Yong as the clay court expert of China which has been a hard court world up until the last few years. Lots of education went on as Chai really has become the local expert and with the courts he has built and the experience he has in taking care of them he has most of the answers. It is interesting how you don’t have to know the language to know what they are talking about. Don’t get me wrong, I was worthless unless Chai had a question, but it was like the old days in the sense of educating the folks on how HydroCourt works and all the different options and there pros and cons.

The bottom line is that China is developing a Tennis Market not unlike what we did years ago. No one seems to have any good data on how many folks are playing tennis here but there must be demand or all those people wouldn’t be so interested. Once again the advantages of learning the game on clay is the big driver as the Chinese pride in their athletes and how they look to the world still trumps any comfort issues that may be side benefits to them.

I have meet a lot of great people here and they are extremely hard workers and have been wonderful to me as I muddle my way through the world over here. It is both an adventure and a challenge and I definitely recommend a visit to the world of China.

John Welborn

Lee Tennis

From Beijing, China

Har-Tru Australia?

If you happen to read the Sidney Morning Herald you have probably noticed that Australia is making a major commitment to training players on clay. Take Robert Grant’s April 28 article for instance, titled, “Aussie Tennis Aims to Dominate on Clay”

(http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-sport/aussie-tennis-aims-to-dominate-on-clay-20100428-trx1.html).

In this article the author reports that, “the move to encourage Australia's best players to devote as much time to the clay court circuit as the hard court events is the key to breaking back into the men's top 10.” The trick for the folks down under is that the climate is quite arid, water is a very scarce commodity, and managing real clay has so far proved impractical. Now however, Tennis Australia has officially approved the Har-Tru surface with the HydroCourt sub-surface irrigation system as an accepted product for facilities interested in installing clay. This mean that facilities that choose to install HydroCourt will be eligible for funding from Tennis Australia. No courts have been installed yet but there is considerable interest at facilities in Sydney, Tasmania and Perth.

How about a clay court circuit in the US played on Har-Tru in February? It's time.