Rain Only Adds to Concerns About Slipping on Grass
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Version 0 of 1. WIMBLEDON, England — Centre Court at the All England Club on the first day of Wimbledon is one of the great sights in sports. Lush green grass with players in the required tennis whites. Beautiful. Elegant. Incredible. Perfect. All of those words were used this week to describe the courts here. But what words should be used when the player in the required tennis whites is splayed on the lush green grass, grabbing a body part in pain? Those images have been the predominant ones from the first four days of Wimbledon. On Thursday another ingredient was added to the embarrassing slide show: rain. Wimbledon had its first rain delay of the championships, which only gave people more time to wonder: what on earth is going on here? In the words of Sloane Stephens, “grass is grass.” In the words of Caroline Wozniacki, “grass is more slippery than other surfaces.” And Wimbledon’s courts are always more slippery at the beginning of the tournament, before the baselines become patches of dirt. But those who follow the sport say the number of falls this year has been noticeably greater. All the tumbling has gotten into the players’ heads, even the head of the most dominant force in women’s tennis. “Seeing all the falls, seeing all the slips, I definitely was a lot more aware going out there today, a little more on my toes,” said Serena Williams, who nonetheless won easily, 6-3, 6-2, over Caroline Garcia. “So for me it played O.K. But I went in there with a mind frame to be careful and be ready.” The most in-demand person at the club has been the new groundskeeper, Neil Stubley, who replaced the longtime groundskeeper Eddie Seaward after last year’s Olympics. In a video interview with Live@Wimbledon on Thursday, Stubley said the club was “100 percent happy” with the courts. He said there was nothing different about the courts and, if anything, they were slightly firmer than last year’s. Perhaps wanting to ease concerns about a transition period, he noted the same grasses were used, at the same height, with the same preparation as at last year’s tournament. Stubley has worked for the club since 1995. The grass might be the same, but the weather has not been. While cool and rainy weather during the tournament is not unusual, England experienced its coldest spring in more than 50 years and a wetter May than average. The sun has been an infrequent visitor to the tournament, but humidity has been persistent, meaning the courts may not have dried out. “If you have a little bit cloudy conditions, you know, or a certain humidity, then the grass absorbs that humidity and becomes very, very wet and slippery,” said top-ranked Novak Djokovic, sounding like a member of the grounds staff. Stubley said the long winter was challenging, but the staff still had plenty of time to prepare the courts. When the players arrived last week to practice, he said, the staff heard positive reactions about how well the courts were playing. But practice is practice, and practice courts are not show courts, which the players are not allowed to practice on. Many of the most notable spills happened on show courts: Victoria Azarenka’s nasty fall Monday, which led her to withdraw with a knee injury; Maria Sharapova’s three falls in her loss Wednesday; and Wozniacki’s slip, which caused a foot injury in her loss Wednesday. On Thursday, Grigor Dimitrov, Sharapova’s boyfriend, nearly slid into the splits late in the fifth set of his match. Sharapova and others had said the club needed to allow players to practice on the show courts because they play so differently. When the All England Club announced last year that Wimbledon would be played a week later beginning in 2015, the club chairman Philip Brook said it was in “the best interests of tennis” to give players more time to recuperate and to adjust from clay to grass. “It does take a while to get used to the grass,” said Chris Evert, a seven-time French Open champion and three-time Wimbledon champion. “I don’t care what kind of player you are. You are using different muscles, you’re using your knees, you’re using your groin more, your hips more. You’re putting more stress on your knees because you’re tentative in your moving. You’re using other muscles to try to get that balance.” Patrick McEnroe, an ESPN analyst, said he did not know whether it was the courts or the weather, but he was sure of one thing. “What I don’t have to guess about is that players are moving a lot faster than they ever have, based on necessity, the way the game is played,” he said. Several players have fallen when changing directions or when trying to slide to reach a ball, a standard move on clay and even on hardcourts now, but an ineffective one on grass. “Hardcourt, your footing is 100 percent stable,” Evert said. “You’re running on cement. Clomp, clomp, clomp. Clay, you’re running, but when you slide, you still have your balance. It’s not going to go: slide and stop abruptly. How do you run on grass? Especially when it’s damp? Gingerly. “The first week of the tournament I always felt I could never go all out on my movement on the grass.” McEnroe, who is also the general manager for player development of the United States Tennis Association, was asked how he would teach the proper footwork on grass. “First of all, trying to push off quickly when you’re out wide is very difficult because you could slip,” he said. “When you run wide, it’s almost like you have to start tiptoeing.” The players might not be getting enough help from their shoes. The Grand Slam Rulebook has specific requirements for the shoes players can wear on grass courts, and all shoes are sent to the All England Club for approval before the tournament. The “pimples or studs” on the soles of the shoes are judged on their diameter (two to three millimeters) and angle of slope between the base and top of the pimple (maximum 10 degrees). There are even guidelines for “pimple-density per square inch.” But the rules do not allow shoes with studs around the outside of the toes, which would help with traction when pushing off. Still, as McEnroe said, “Slipping is part of the game.” But it probably won’t be part of Wimbledon by the time the grass wears down and the courts dry out in the second week. Grass tends to be a personal thing, anyway. Sergiy Stakhovsky, who upset Roger Federer on Wednesday, said he thought the courts were playing faster than last year. Wozniacki said she thought they were slower. Then there is Williams. “I could play on any court,” she said. “They all seem the same to me.” <NYT_AUTHOR_ID> <p>Christopher Clarey contributed reporting. |