The French Open Clay Court...Yay or Nay
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by user Wtt02005
Tennis is unique in that it changes the playing field during certain tournaments. Perhaps, the most known tournament is the French Open which was played last week. The participants play on an orange brown surface which is known as clay. It is often a roadblock for many athletes, namely Roger Federer who failed to capture a calendar Grand Slam, winning all four major tournaments in the same year.
I wonder why tennis is the only sport off the top of my head that changes the sport. In basketball, they do not decide to raise the hoop to 20 feet during the playoffs. In golf, a sport that also has its own collection of tournaments, I couldn't possibly see them eliminating the green and placing the hole in the sand pit.
Athletes change, but the sport does not. So the athlete who masters playing tennis on water will never be a tennis great until he masters the essence of the sport...grass. He will just be an entertaining fellow; one can draw the parallel between the NBA and Street Ball.
The French should consider changing the surface. This makes sense to me because the other three tournaments are different.
This is not a knock on Rafael Nadal.
Date
Mon 06/19/06, 8:45 pm EST
