At the Indian Wells tournament, players found the courts surprisingly slow, despite recent changes aimed at improving playability. This year, a new company, Laykold, was contracted to resurface the hard courts, yet players like Carlos Alcaraz and Daniil Medvedev expressed disappointment, feeling the conditions remained consistent with previous tournaments. Medvedev recounted a practice mishap that demonstrated the court's excessive grip, indicating little change. The ongoing feedback suggests that the anticipated faster play at Indian Wells may be unfulfilled, diminishing player expectations for this major event.
Kind of the same court, really slow, bounce a lot, Carlos Alcaraz said Monday night, after beating the dangerous Denis Shapovalov 6-2, 6-4. They said that they changed it, but if nobody told me that I would think it is the same.
Daniil Medvedev, who two years ago famously threatened to pee as slow as this court is while declaring himself a hard-court expert, showed up last week and said he thought the court was as slow and gritty as ever.
The Russian, who beat Tommy Paul 6-4, 6-0 in the round of 16 Tuesday, said that when he accidentally dropped his racket during practice, the grittiness of the court ripped his grip as it slid across the ground.
Collection
[
|
...
]