At Wimbledon, the Grass Isn’t Quite the Grass Anymore

livemint.com:

Novak Djokovic had just won the French Open when the questions began about his preparations to claim a 24th major title at Wimbledon. With three weeks between the two tournaments, how would he manage the transition from clay courts to grass this season? And which grass-court tuneup events would he play to rediscover a feel for the surface? Djokovic’s answer: none of them. His next competitive match would be the first round at the All England Club, this week—and it would feel just fine.

As far as Djokovic is concerned, playing tennis on grass no longer constitutes the kind of esoteric pursuit that requires weeks of specialized preparation. And he’s not alone. Players and coaches are realizing that the lawns of Wimbledon barely feel like grass at all anymore.

“Grass courts have changed a lot—they play more like a hard court," said Chris Evert, who won Wimbledon three times between 1974 and 1981 and works as an analyst for ESPN. “They’re harder. There’s a lot more groundstrokes being played." The relative hardness of a grass court might seem like a small detail in a sport as complex as tennis.

But it changes everything about how the game is played, from how high the ball bounces to how players move. It used to be so awkward to get used to that Wimbledon championships spent decades as the preserve of grass-court experts, who mastered serve-and-volley tennis and short rallies. Now, a player as gifted as Djokovic can go seamlessly from cleaning up at Roland-Garros to cleaning up at the All England Club, where the 36-year-old hopes to become the oldest men’s singles champion in the Open Era.