I Miss Hard Courts

In the last couple of weeks, my level of respect for the following tennis players has risen dramatically: Roger Federer (I didn't think it was possible to respect him more, but hey), Andre Agassi, Michael Chang, Jim Courier, Mats Wilander, Bjorn Borg, Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Ivan Lendl, Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova, Monica Seles, Jennifer Capriati, Serena Williams, and Steffi Graf. If you can tell me what all of these amazing players have in common before you read the next paragraph, I will fly you down to Peru myself and pay for your surfing lessons.

All of the aforementioned players have won the French Open, which is held on clay courts. Of course, these are not the only people who have won. But they're the ones that I know for sure who did not grow up playing on clay, meaning that at some point they had to learn how to adjust their game to win at the French. And let me tell you, having recently begun to play regularly on a clay court, that is WAY easier said than done.

I also have way more sympathy for Pete Sampras, John McEnroe, and - we'll throw Andy Roddick in there too, I guess, and other great players who weren't quite able to take home the Coupe des Mosquetaires. The court just plays way differently from a hard court or a grass court, and I'm constantly reminding myself of the adjustments I have to make.

So the upshot of this post is that, after over 2 years of very sparse opportunities for playing tennis, I again am able to play regularly! The first week I was here, one of the trainers who works at the gym I joined told me there was a country club with courts in a particular area of Trujillo. So I walked over and inquired about using the facilities, and was told that I'd need to join the club (for the price of a trip to Antarctica, basically) or be invited by a member to play. But luck was on my side, because at the moment I was leaving a member with tennis rackets walked in and told me that there was a public court in a different area of Trujillo, and that the club pro could take me there. And then even more luck was on my side, because at that moment the club pro walked out of a doorway and started to leave! So I introduced myself and walked with him to the public courts. They're a 35-minute walk from my house, or an 8-minute taxi ride. Here they are:

There are two, one of red clay and the other of some gray gravel-like substance of unknown origin. I play on the red one because, according to the pro, it's better. I believe him.

Here the pro's son is repainting the lines on the court. He says they have to do that at least 3 times a day.

The courts are part of a "sports complex" across the street from a middle/high school. So there's a basketball court, an area where people play soccer, and a little track (about 300 meters, by my best estimate) around the whole thing.

I got the pro's information, to schedule a time to play when I could, and went away feeling very successful. I didn't have any time to play until the very end of August, but in the last couple of weeks I've gotten to hit fairly often, maybe 3-4 times a week, so I feel like I'm starting to get into a rhythm again. The clay has made it slightly difficult to do that.

Here, now, are the reasons why clay courts are different from hard courts:

1. The ball doesn't take a reliable bounce - depending on where it lands in the court and how the clay is settled, it can follow the trajectory it had before it hit the court, or it can just hit the court and die, or it can bounce over your head, or it can zoom off perpendicular to where you are. The last three options, which occur with surprising frequency, leave you to whiff and attempt not to look totally dumb for having slashed at air.

2. The corollary to #1: because you always have to be wary of wacky bounces, you have to make tons of last-second adjustments to get in position to hit the ball. You might get by sometimes with lazy footwork on hard courts, but you will bite the dust (literally) if you don't keep your feet moving on clay.

3. If you've ever watched tennis commentary on ESPN, you've heard this one a thousand times: the ball "takes more spin" on clay than on any other surface. So if you give it a good slice, it'll hit the court and skim along barely off the surface. Go for topspin, and you can see why Nadal's forehand would be so devastating. I mean, I can even see topspin when I hit the ball! (Note: If you've ever played with me, you know I hit a pretty flat ball). So you just have to be ready to respond to some fairly extreme spins.

4. This one, even more than the wacky bounces, is giving me fits: the movement is simply not the same. I haven't learned how to slide yet, which puts me at a pretty big disadvantage for playing on clay, and multiple times I've pretty much just gotten stuck when trying to change direction because the action of pushing off is trickier. You have clay moving under your feet as you run, so you just feel a little slower and it's harder to set up for a shot on the run.

But regardless of these complications in my return to tennis, it's still one of the things that I enjoy doing most and I love that I'm getting back into the routine. And it's going to feel pretty good when I'm running around like a real clay-courter!