Hard and True: The U.S. Open Series is the Hardcourt Season

Joe Samuel Starnes — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 01:42:51 +0000

Is there a more misleading name for a tennis court surface than Har-Tru? Har-Tru courts are green clay and are neither hard nor true. When I was growing up in Georgia in the ‘70s it was known as Rubico, a word that has long fallen out of fashion but sounds more in line with how the courts play – soft and gritty and with a European/South American nuance.

My tennis in my youth was on hard courts, a surface where the ball bounces up lively and strong and if the court is not maintained by some negligent government institution that let it fall victim to cracks (and why is it the cracks always seem to run along or near the service lines?), the bounce of the ball is vibrant and honest and predictable.

Most of my tennis these days is played on Har-Tru, a soft cushion of a surface. I grant you now that I am in my forties that running around on the spongy clay is certainly better on the knees, hips, back and other aging joints and muscles, but I still miss that thump of the ball as it bounces up from a hardcourt.

On clay and grass, the court itself is too much of a factor, slowing the ball down or deflecting it. On hard courts, the ball bounces the way it wants to, and goes the direction it was hit, and the surface doesn’t have much to say about it — it’s the truest form of tennis. Tennis should be more about the ball, and less about the ground underfoot.

That’s why I’m excited to see the professional tour begin the U.S. Open Series, the prize-money trail that leads the top pros to the U.S. Open, the year’s final Grand Slam. Click here for the complete TV schedule.

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Hard and True: The U.S. Open Series is the Hardcourt Season