Style Versus Surface
A few years ago there was concern, especially on the men’s ATP Tour, that the players were becoming very specialized by surface, i.e. “clay-courters” played well on clay, but had very little success on hard courts and vice versa. However, now the ATP Tour and Sony Ericsson WTA Tour are dominated by two excellent all-court Number One players, i.e. Roger Federer and Justine Henin. At the same time, many of the so-called
“clay-courters” from South America, Spain, etc. are showing that they can play well on hard and even grass tennis courts, e.g., Nadal’s consecutive Wimbledon final round appearances. In the end, it’s more about style of play and confidence rather than the surface. A strong baseliner with a decent, but not outstanding serve, can still succeed on hard courts, especially if he or she is playing very confidently, e.g. David Ferrer in 2007. Conversely, a very dominating server such as Ivo Karlovic has shown in 2007 that he can even win on clay courts! In the end, style of play and surface both impact performance, but ultimately a player’s success is more about style and confidence than the playing surface.
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