Adapting to a different surface can be a major challenge for players during the year, but going back to clay is rarely a problem for those who have grown up playing on it
N early all of today’s best players are all-rounders. Being a specialist on one playing surface will only get you so far in the world rankings, which require you to perform on all courts. With increasingly little difference in the speeds of modern-day playing surfaces, there is also much less scope to be a specialist these days: you no longer need to play serve-and- volley to succeed on grass, just as you do not have to be a baseline grinder to prosper on clay. Novak Djokovic has regularly dominated Wimbledon from the back of the court, while Maria Sharapova won two French Opens despite admitting that she used to move like “a cow on ice” when playing on clay. Some players, nevertheless, still feel more at home on certain surfaces and smiles will be appearing on a number of faces as this year’s clay-court season gets under way. For many continental European and south American players, clay is the surface on which they learned the game. For the last eight months most have had to earn their living on hard courts, but for the next 10 weeks or so they can rediscover the joys of clay. Simona Halep describes herself as “the happiest person in the world” when the clay-court season comes around. Adapting to a different surface during the year can be a major challenge for players, but going back to clay is rarely a problem for those who have grown up playing on it. “Even if I have been playing on hard courts for six months, when I come back to clay, even on the very first day, it feels like I have
played on it for years,” Dominic Thiem told tennishead . “I feel completely fine. Easy.” Iga Swiatek said that growing up on clay meant that sliding had always came naturally to her. “I’m not the kind of player who has to learn every year how to do that,” she said. “I just have to remind myself how I was moving.” Her use of heavy top spin and her kick serve are also most effective on clay. “I like to have a lot of time. Clay is perfect for me. When I was younger, I was only practising on clay. A lot of European girls are in this situation.” Rafael Nadal, of course, always relishes a return to terre battue , but, like Djokovic, the Spaniard excels on other surfaces too. Instead it is players like Thiem, Casper Ruud, Carlos Alcaraz, Paula Badosa and Barbora Krejcikova who appreciate that the clay season might be the time when they need to make hay. Ruud has won six clay-court titles in the last two years and Alcaraz’s first two titles were won on clay. Badosa won more tour-level matches on clay last year than any other woman, while Krejcikova is the reigning champion at Roland Garros. There is probably no one looking forward to putting on their clay-court shoes more thanThiem, whose fortunes took an unlikely turn for the worse after he won his first Grand Slam title at the US Open in 2020. The combination of a foot problem and mental tiredness - probably the legacy of so many years of hard work - sawThiem play only 18 matches in 2021. The former world No 3 suffered a wrist injury last summer which has kept him out of action for more than nine months, but
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