Watching the 2006 French Open makes me think about red clay

For most North Americans red clay is something we hear about a lot and see mainly on our TV screens as we watch the French Open every year.

It's an ongoing debate as to which surface ( hard or clay) is better for developing young players.

Having played on both, I think that if I had a choice as a national director of tennis training, that I would prefer to see the kids train on clay.

Obviously, clay ( especially the red variety seen mainly in Europe and South America) slows the ball down and makes it harder to play attacking tennis. But, it encourages full flowing strokes with lots of topspin, drop shots, angles, and wily tactics.

Of course, because clay doesn't tend to favor attackers, often clay courters don't serve that well and don't have particularly good volleys. You can see that now in the game of Rafael Nadal --one of the most dominant clay courters of all time.

Anybody have any thoughts?

Glenn Sheiner M.D. - author of INSIDER TENNIS STRATEGIES The Ebook guaranteed to make you a smarter tennis player and take your tennis to the next level.

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Red Clay