The French Open courts are clay, a tricky surface for some. Here’s how the pros do it

The men’s and women’s qualifying rounds of the French Open started Monday, culminating a season of professional tennis on a surface that’s notoriously challenging to compete on: clay.

The court at Roland-Garros, the stadium where the French Open is held, is a five-layer sandwich of various stones and coal residue, topped off with a thin layer of red brick dust. The mixture can be unstable, as it can shift underfoot. By comparison, hard courts have a resin or acrylic top coat that provides an even surface. Grass has a rougher texture that gives the ball a lower bounce.

But any athlete who makes it to the French Open is “a phenomenal tennis player at that point” and learns to adapt to clay, said Steve Johnson, a retired tennis pro who has played in 10 French Open tournaments. NPR spoke with him and two players competing in this year’s French Open about how they have navigated the ruddy terrain over their careers.

Marta Kostyuk

As a junior player, Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine performed well on clay courts. She had more endurance, but she was also a lot more rigid in her approach to the game, she said, which didn’t bode as well once she advanced to the pros.

“I would set myself to play [a] sure manner, and I principally would not change it,” she stated.

So she’s needed to study to be extra versatile. After all, clay is finicky. It shrinks and expands, so every step and bounce can really feel completely different from one other, she stated.

Clay season can be quick. It’s a sequence of tournaments that runs from late March to early June — a couple months out of the full season, which is usually allotted to onerous courts. So it could be onerous to get into the groove, Kostyuk stated.

It additionally does not assist that every clay court docket has its personal DNA. For instance, Madrid’s court docket is at a greater altitude, with thinner air that provides the ball much less resistance.

“So the balls are just flying,” she stated.

Her mom, Talina Beiko, performed professionally and made positive Kostyuk practiced repeatedly on clay. The courts at Roland-Garros have a heavier consistency, like the ones she grew up taking part in on.

“It’s a very real clay court, the proper one for me,” Kostyuk stated.

Kostyuk’s adaptability has paid off. In a span of three weeks, she received back-to-back clay tournaments in Madrid and Rouen, France, launching her from the twenty eighth to the fifteenth finest feminine singles participant in the world on the Women’s Tennis Association’s ranking.

Steve Johnson

Red could also be the clay of alternative for a number of professional tournaments, however it’s not the solely type.

Red clay is extra naturally obtainable in Latin America and Europe than it is in the US, so clay courts in the US usually tackle one other consistency and hue, inexperienced.

“It’s a little bit more fine, it’s a little bit more slippery than the red clay,” Johnson, the retired professional, stated. “So it gives you somewhat of the feeling that you’re on red clay, because you can move and slide, but the footing is not there.”

It can take gamers from the US, like Johnson, a little time to regulate to crimson clay. In Johnson’s earlier taking part in days, that might imply three or 4 tournaments. But with expertise, that window dwindled to a week or two, he stated.

“As a young pro, you sometimes feel as if you need to rethink the wheel a little bit based on the new surfaces that you play,” he stated.

But taking part in on clay normally meant a minimum of making a few tweaks to his method, he stated. Clay slows the ball down, which supplies extra time to answer a shot. So Johnson would possibly “wrongfoot” somebody — getting in a completely different path than your opponent is anticipating. He would possibly play extra aggressively, he stated, or swap up his protection fashion.

Clay can be very delicate to climate variations. The texture could be firmer on a gloomy, cool day, and looser on a sizzling day, Johnson stated.

“It feels like you’re playing two completely different tournaments,” he stated.

Hailey Baptiste

Hailey Baptiste is a 24-year-old American ranked the twenty fifth finest participant in the world in girls’s singles by the WTA. She additionally stated it’s uncommon for younger US athletes to play on crimson clay courts. But there have been two at the tennis membership she practiced in suburban Maryland when she was youthful.

Not solely did she get an early begin with clay, however it’s her favourite surface.

“I really enjoy sliding around,” Baptiste says. “I feel like it’s easier, almost, because you can just kind of let your weight go when you stop, rather than having to take a ton of adjustment steps all the time on hard court.”

Baptiste stated she has sturdy quadriceps, making it simpler to manage herself on slides, a essential device to remain balanced, decelerate and reset on clay surfaces.

Last 12 months, she made it to the fourth spherical of girls’s singles at the French Open, and the first spherical of doubles. She’s up for doubles once more this 12 months.

She’ll seemingly speak technique together with her companion nearer to the match, however she does not plan on reinventing that wheel Johnson spoke of. Plus, she’s paired with somebody who has dominated all varieties of courts — Venus Williams.

“Every time I play tournament, I’m playing to win the tournament,” Baptiste stated.