Insider:

Court Surfaces

I can still remember the first tennis game I played on a computer. In fact, I can't forget it … no matter how hard I try. It billed itself as a Grand Slam simulation, with tournament-style play on grass, hard court, and clay, and every surface was supposed to influence the style of play you'd need to win. It was a great idea for a game, which is why it was so unfortunate that it wasn’t true. There was absolutely no difference between the surfaces in that game; “grass” and “clay” were just two different colors applied to the same surface.

So let's just say that I approached Top Spin™ with some suspicion. I'm a tennis purist. I'm serious enough about the game in real life that I demand computer versions be realistic in certain fundamental ways. When I heard that Top Spinaccurately captured the experience of playing on different surfaces, part of me cheered while another part shook its head in cynical disdain. I would have to see it before I truly believed it.

Well, now I've seen it, and I believe it. Top Spin doesn't simply pretend to put you on the three major surfaces of international tennis, it actually does. It's not a perfectly accurate sim, of course—you won't smell the grass of a Wimbledon-style court until someone perfects that aroma-vision technology—but it's the best thing gamers have seen so far. So come and join me as we get down and dirty on the Top Spinsurfaces.

A great player can adapt to all surfaces.

Clay Court
Some people will tell you that clay is a slow court, but don’t believe it. Clay actually gives the truest bounce of any modern tennis surface. The fact is that the other surfaces are slippery and make the ball appear to move faster because of more shallow bounces, but clay does nothing to slow the ball down. In our scientific survey, we found that Top Spin matches on clay featured rallies that averaged 5.5 strokes per point—the most of the three surface types. With the ball bouncing up nice and high, your clay court matches will tend to feature longer rallies, and you’ll have trouble dominating with power shots and big serves. In general, it’s a good idea to play conservatively on clay. Stay back and chase down your opponents’ shots, and don’t attack the net unless you have a good ball to come in behind. These matches will test your patience as much as your skill, so don’t waste points with ill-advised risk shots just because you’re getting impatient.

Try hitting aggressive groundstrokes on hard courts.

Hard Court
This is the court type right in the middle: it’s not as fast as grass, but it’s still faster than clay. In our studies, hard-court rallies averaged 4.5 strokes per rally, a full stroke less than on clay. The ball tends to skid a little on hard courts, and that brings rallies to an end quicker. Big serves are a little bigger, and challenging shots are that much harder to chase down. You can win on a hard court by playing from the baseline—Jimmy Connors and Andre Agassi based very successful careers on doing just that—but the surface doesn’t demand the degree of caution that clay does. Try to exert control over the point as soon as you can, with a big serve, aggressive groundstrokes, or a chip-and-charge that immediately puts your opponent on his or her heels. Then, after you’ve seized the initiative, keep your opponent on the defensive until the point is over.

On grass, getting to the net is key.

Grass
This is the slickest, fastest surface in real life, and it’s the fastest surface in Top Spin as well. Our crack scientific team found that grass-court rallies averaged 4.4 strokes per rally, slightly less than hard court. So what’s true for hard court is even truer for grass: End the point quickly, or your opponent might end it first. The dominant game on grass is the serve-and-volley. Knock your opponent back with a risk serve, and then get to the net as quickly as possible. Ideally, your opponent shouldn’t get more than two swings at the ball.

In Top Spin, it’s not enough to know the characteristics of your onscreen player; you also need to adapt those characteristics to the court surface. After you’ve turned those surfaces into a firm foundation, you’ll be well on your way to victory.

By B.B. Larouche