Clay-Court Tennis, the ‘Greatest Show on Dirt’
The French Open is the quintessential clay court tournament: It’s the greatest show on dirt.
Every year at this time, I fall in love again and again with Roland Garros’s beautiful, burnt sienna courts ringed with emerald green backdrops. Though it’s not really clay. We call it clay because of its origins. In late 19th-century France, ceramics were crushed into powder and spread over the grass courts of a Cannes hotel to protect them from wear and to bring down maintenance costs. (Grass courts are costly to maintain — especially with people trampling all over them day after day.)
The surface proved to be a great hit among both the visitors of the Côte d’Azur and the hotel owners.… Seguir leyendo »