What is lawn tennis like?

Wimbledon, All White, strawberries and cream, Boris Becker, serve and volley, British prestige, all of this is associated with lawn tennis! In lawn tennis you expect short points and fast playing conditions. In reality it is a bit more complicated, the lawn is unpredictable. During the coin toss, the referees always say, “this is a living and breathing surface, keep in mind”.
While hard courts or clay courts in a facility are always quite similar, every grass court in a venue can be different. And even on the same court there can be differences from day to day, sometimes it is wetter and sometimes the grass is drier. Slazenger balls are always played on grass. Anyone who has ever tried to play with the balls on sand knows that they are stone balls that hardly fly compared to other common tennis balls. So is lawn slow? No! You just have to keep a few things in mind.

Pay particular attention to lawns

Slice is accepted excellently by the lawn, similar to carpet, but even more extreme. Good slice serves are difficult to return because the ball has to be lifted a lot. If you move up after the serve, many people will simply be able to use volleys. On the other hand, topspin shots or kick serves are of little use, the bounce is not high and the grass even slows down such balls. That's why you're seeing more and more long rallies on grass in singles. On grass you have to play cleverly and make the most of the grass.

An absolute secret trick on grass is short balls and volleys, slow short balls almost stay on the ground, like a run-out put in golf. At the net you should try to put the volley short and thus make it out of reach. Stop balls are just as effective, it is very difficult to move on grass, if your opponent is too far behind the baseline then even an average stop ball will become unreachable.

Unfortunately, very few tennis players have the opportunity to play on grass, regardless of whether they are a hobbyist or a professional athlete, it is an exciting experience in which you can get to know yourself better as a tennis player. In Germany you can find grass pitches in Stuttgart, Halle and Bad Homburg, among others. The grass season is short (4-6 weeks) as the grass sheds very quickly, so it is important to invest in good shoes. You can find special lawn shoes in various online tennis shops. If you want to try the lawn tennis adventure, I recommend ordering your shoes early. In the summer it's harder to get them, and of course very important for the feeling, it's best to play them in all white.

Have fun on the holy turf,

Hendrik