There are four major tournaments in the tennis calendar – and every one’s played on a different surface. Wimbledon is played on grass; the French Open is played on clay; the Australian Open is played on a specially-designed hard court surface called ‘Rebound Ace’; and the US Open is played on a green hard court surface called ‘Decoturf’. Each surface reacts slightly differently. For example, the grass court gives a low bounce and is unpredictable.
Have you ever wondered why certain tennis players are better on certain surfaces?
You might like to …
• find out which different playing surfaces are used for tennis; find out how the ‘specially-designed’ hard court surfaces are made
• carry out some tests to see how tennis balls bounce on different surfaces
• carry out tests to see if a spinning tennis ball moves more when bouncing on certain surfaces
• carry out tests to work out the ‘predictability’ of different surfaces (for example, does the ball bounce in the same direction every time it hits the same spot?)
• design a ‘Cyclops’ machine to tell you whether a ball bounces ‘in’ or ‘out’; how good is your machine compared to a human umpire?