ARE AMERICANS ALLERGIC TO GRASS?

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Bobby Reynolds may be No. 102 in the world, but he's America's No.1 hope right now.

There hasn't been an article about Wimbledon in the last two weeks that didn't mention Federer and Rafa? But what of our American boys? What of them? It's been close to a decade since Sampras last won at Wimbledon and already this year three of our four guys have been knocked out. A brief glance at the USTA's Pro schedule will have you wondering if Americans are afraid of grass court tennis? To find out more we called Bill Rompf, Director of Tennis at the International Hall of Fame and the overseer of the U.S.'s only ATP sanctioned grass court event (The Campbell's Hall of Fame Championships in Newport, Rhode Island, July 7th). And in case you were wondering, our remaining hope, Bobby Reynolds, has a 130 mph serve.

Mag.Com: So, explain the major differences between grass court play and hard court and clay?
Bill Rompf: The surface creates a completely different game. Typically on a grass court the ball will bounce a lot lower. It will almost skid off the surface because the grass is slicker. The less time the ball is in the air, the harder it is to get to, so grass court play usually means shorter rallies and quicker points. Clay, on the other hand, does the opposite. When a ball hits the ground it grabs the composition or clay, bounce more vertically, and sits up longer. There's much more time to play the ball then and its harder to put it away. Hard court is somewhere in the middle.

What types of players are usually play better on grass?
Grass really lends itself to players who have powerful serves, strong ground strokes, and more traditionally, to masters of the serve and volley. But you've got to realize that there are different types of grass courts too. The Wimbledon courts, for example, are very hard. They intentionally roll them that way. The first week of the tournament, because of the dirt's firmness the ball is really sliding off the ground more than it's bouncing. Very unforgiving.

There is only one grass court event in the U.S.? How come it's more popular in Europe?
Grass courts are expensive to maintain and difficult to keep up. Except for a few surviving clubs that tend to be private and wealthy and a few camps and academies that have them specifically for training purposes there just aren't that many in the United States. Hard court surfaces are more consistent and they're a guarantee, which is another reason. They're not dependent on things like rain or growing conditions. Actually though, the original US Nationals (that later became the US Open) was played on grass here at the Hall of Fame in Newport. When it first moved to Forest Hills it was also grass, then clay for a couple of years before it moved to Flushing Meadows. Back in the day, Jimmy Connors won Forest Hills on all three surfaces. But typically the hard surface has favored American players.

Pete Sampras was an American who had some ownage on grass. What was it about his game that made him more successful at Wimbledon?
Sampras had that legendary serve and volley. And as far as surfaces go, hard court play is similar to grass in its speed, so playing on grass wasn't that far of a stretch for Pete. Remember, the only Slam he never won was on the clay of Roland Garros.

Do you think Americans have any sort of disadvantage when it comes to playing on grass and if so why?
I don't. No one can say it's a matter of not having access to grass courts because at the level we're talking about good players are going to find whatever surface they want to practice on.

What about the Americans this year, how do their particular skills or physical capabilities match up with grass court play?
Actually the grass game has undergone a change. Today's players are less about serve and volley and more about long ground strokes. To be at the net is now considered a risky venture. These days players are so powerful and have such control out of the back, that they decide to stay there most of the match. That's especially true of the young American players.

So are we going to see an American win Wimbledon any time soon?
The main obstacle for the Americans are Federer and Nadal. They're anomalies. I still think Federer has the ultimate edge on grass. People are saying that Nadal could knock him off, but I'm not sure. You also have to keep in mind that the Wimbledon courts totally change over the course of the tournament. They play normal, but when the grass begins to wear away, the dirt underneath basically transforms into clay and the ball just starts hanging out there. I was the executive director of the Bollettieri Academy when Agassi won his first Wimbledon and I remember him coming home and saying how much different the court was between the first day to the final day. I'm watching it right now—we're only in the end of the first week and the baselines are already looking pretty bare. When that starts happening, anything can happen.

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