Slippery / Sticky / Greasy Courts at Wimbledon

Written by: Bob Larson Tennis on 27th June 2013

Slippery / Sticky / Greasy Courts at Wimbledon |

Photo courtesy of Brett Connors photography

Twitter: @Brett_Connors

Wimbledon set an Open Era record with retirements/walkovers with seven on Wednesday, and whether the slippery courts were to blame is very much up to debate.

Among those players who retired or pulled out included John Isner, Victoria Azarenka, Steve Darcis, Radek Stepanek, Jo Wilfried Tsonga, Yaroslava Shvedova and Marin Cilic.

Among those who fell down time and hurt themselves were two former No.1 in Maria Sharapova and Caroline Wozniacki, both of whom lost.

Bernard Tomic, who is still in the singles, retired from his doubles match with a hamstring issue.

World No. 2 Azarenka, who has a bone bruise, was beside herself

“The court was not in a very good condition that day,” said Azarenka, who spoke in a low voice with a pain looked on her face. “My opponent fell twice; I fell badly; there were some other people who fell after. So I don’t know if it’s the court or the weather. I can’t figure it out it. Would be great if the club or somebody who takes care of the court just would examine or try to find an issue so that wouldn’t happen. There is nothing I’ve done wrong that cost me to just withdraw from Wimbledon… I don’t see anything positive as of today because I’m disappointed extremely.”

Wozniacki twisted her ankle in the fourth game of the second set of her match against Petra Cetkovska and after that looked extremely slow. For a player who depends on her foot sped to win matches, that spelled doom.

“Normally on the grass you can expect to slide on the sides with your foot, but not really when you have a full grip underneath with your shoes, you should be able to stand comfortably,” she said.

Wozniacki added that courts played similar to last year’s Olympics, which was played a few weeks after Wimbledon, forcing the grounds crew to re-lay the courts with pre-germinated seed, which was not as deeply rooted.

“I find them a little bit different. I find them a little bit slower, first of all. I don’t know if the grass is a little longer, what it is. But, yeah, I think they’re more similar to the Olympics last year than they were to Wimbledon last year,” Wozniacki said

Wozniacki played on Court 2, as did Sharapova, who fell down three times in her loss to Michelle Larcher De Brito. She refused to blame the court conditions for her defeat, but during the match said to the umpire that it seemed dangerous.

“Well, after I buckled my knee three times, that’s obviously my first reaction,” Sharapova said. “And because I’ve just never fallen that many times in a match before. Those are the conditions that are there for my opponent, as well. Just took a lot more falls than she did today.”

When asked if there was a solution, Sharapova did venture that perhaps the players should be allowed to practice on the smaller stadiums, which don’t seem to be playing as consistently as Centre and Court 1.

“I’m not a groundsman. I’ve never really worked on grass courts before,” she said “Especially those courts, even Centre Court, Court 1, 2, 3, maybe having the opportunity to practice on them a few days before, because no one can practice on them. The first few days, you just know that they’re going to just be really different.”

Cilic said that the grass did have an affect on his pullout.

“It’s more because of obviously much lower bounces, putting more pressure on my body and my knees, as I’m pretty tall,” he said. “It also has a difficulty on movement. It’s a bit tougher to move on grass than other surfaces.”

In the Open Era. the most singles retirements/walkovers at a Grand Slam tournament overall is 17 at 2011 US Open. The total number of singles retirements/walkovers at 2013 Wimbledon to date is 10 players.

However, the All England Club issued a statement, which said: “There have been no changes in the preparation of the courts and as far as we are aware the grass surface is in excellent condition. In fact, we believe that it is drier than last year when the prevailing conditions were cold and wet.”

But coach Nick Bollettieri said: “I’ve been to many Grand Slams and have not seen so many people pull out. These are big pullouts too. It is unbelievable. Grass is going to be a topic of conversation. You just don’t have these many injuries happening.”