Woodbridge: The unique quirks of Roland Garros

Published by Todd Woodbridge

Court scheduling is rarely as important as it is at Roland Garros. Photo: Getty Images
Fast courts, slow courts, flat courts and curved courts. Todd Woodbridge explains why court scheduling is more important at Roland Garros than any other tournament in the world.

Court scheduling is more important at Roland Garros than at any other tournament, because the surfaces there vary in speed.

Phillippe Chatrier feels like the largest court we play on during the year. It’s a huge backdrop, making it a visually different proposition to most of the tennis courts around the world in terms of depth perception. And it’s flat – billiard table flat. To get comfortable on that court you need to have played there a lot, and that benefits the biggest players.

If you go to Suzanne Lenglen, it’s got quite a slope on it and has a thicker ‘top’. So it’s much slower, and a harder court to penetrate with winning groundstrokes. It’s a heavier court that lends itself to dogged rallies.

Go to Court 1 – ‘the bullring’ – and that’s a fast court. It slopes out from the centre of the court (like the outside courts do), and that benefits a more aggressive player. The kind of player who likes to sneak into the net, a player who likes to serve and volley. It’s a great court for a kick serve – it’s very hard to return because the ball bounces hard and high, much moreso than it does on Chatrier. I used to like playing on that court.

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Then you get to the outside courts and they are quite small by comparison. Often, on the outside courts, you’ll see players retrieving balls on the court covers, because the courts aren’t big enough for way that the game is played today. So when you’re in a situation like that, where the playing space is very contained, it’s a benefit for the ‘non-grinder’, someone who likes to be aggressive and take a match on.

So as an example, a player like Nick Kyrgios will play great tennis on the bullring, probably okay on Chatrier, but might struggle on Lenglen.

Players know all of this, and there will be certain match-ups that someone like Rafael Nadal will look at and say ‘I would prefer to play this guy on Lenglen’. Scheduling requests do happen, and the tournaments have to look into them. So if a player is smart, someone like Rafa will look at the draw and say: ‘I know I have to play on Suzanne Lenglen once, and I would like to play this guy there’. That would work for the organisers and would work for Rafa, so what’s the problem?

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The weather is another consideration when it comes to the surfaces. If it is warm and hot the ball bounces high, suiting someone like Rafa who has a heavy topspin style that makes the ball jump. He loves that. But if it is cold and wet (like last year), the court becomes sticky and heavy, changing the dynamics of the match-ups.

You can’t discuss the French Open without talking about the crowd.

The key at Roland Garros is not to rile the crowd. They may not be ‘with’ you, but if you do something that antagonises them then you are in trouble. You need to be careful that you don’t bring them into the match if you are a player – you have to keep the confrontation between you and an opponent. If there is a hint of an opportunity, the French like to join the match and become another competitor.

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We’ve seen some great players experience that. Hingis experienced it during the 1999 final against Graf. Novak has experienced it in his matches against Roger. We saw Nick Kyrgios have issues with the crowd in Miami, they were nothing compared to what a French crowd would do if he riles them if playing against someone like Tsonga (which he could in the third round). It’s something you don’t go into a match planning on, but you need to be aware of it.

All of these things make the French Open a unique event.

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