Playing performance of tennis court surfaces

Oblique tennis ball impact measurements were carried out on fifteen different tennis courts around the UK including a whole range of court types (7 in total). Testing was carried out at three locations on each court; near the net, in the service box and near the base-line. New tennis balls were projected obliquely using an air cannon and apparatus designed to determine the Surface Pace Rating (a value used by the International Tennis Federation to categorise courts) was used to measure the dynamic characteristics of each fired ball before and after the impact with the court. It was found that the velocity and angle data obtained for the grass court encompassed a range that included the indoor carpet and all the acrylic courts. There was a relationship between speed and angle of rebound and generally, courts either gave slow, steep rebound (e.g. clay); fast, shallow rebound (e.g. indoor carpet) or somewhere in between (e.g. painted macadam). The variation in Surface Pace Rating (SPR) for each location on the court was examined. It was found that for the grass and painted macadam courts, the SPR value was lowest near the net and highest near the base-line., indicating that wear on these courts leads to an increase in 'pace'. This relationship was also apparent to a lesser extent on the acrylic courts, but the clay courts showed no consistent relationship between location and SPR value.