Have the courts been slowed down too much in Paris?

This week, in the Paris Masters Series, like every year at this event, the main focus on the event appears to be on who will be obtaining the remaining three places in the Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai. At the end of yesterday’s play, this question seems to have been largely answered already, as David Ferrer crashed out to Philipp Kohlschreiber in his opening match, while Gilles Simon continued his strong run defeating Igor Andreev in his first match of the week. Unless if any of the outside contenders, like Fernando Verdasco, Gael Monfils or David Nalbandian wins the title, or either Jo-Wilfried Tsonga or James Blake reaches the final (and Simon loses early), which appears unlikely at this point, both Juan Martin Del Potro and Gilles Simon will be making their Masters Cup debut this year.

As for the tournament itself, there has been quite a bit of discussion from commentators and fans yet again this year regarding the speed of the court in Paris Bercy, which before it was switched to indoor hardcourt last year, used to be played on one of the quickest courts on the tour, on indoor carpet. For me, the biggest problem is that the tournament organizers announced that they had sped up the court this year to make it a similar speed to Madrid, when this clearly is not the case. While it is true that the speed of the indoor courts has definitely slowed down across the board, it does appear that there was a concerted effort from many of the tournament directors to speed it up this year, compared to last year with the court surface in Vienna and Basel playing faster than it did the previous year.

In the match between Andy Murray and Sam Querrey, Querrey could not appear to penetrate through the court at all, with his usually dangerous forehand sitting up relatively high making him look nothing more than a solid, consistent player. But interestingly if you tune into the action on Court 1, there is such a sizable difference in playing conditions, where the court appears to be much quicker, although the lower camera angle definitely adds to that view.

Personally for me, I have been enjoying watching the action on Court 1 on the Masters Series TV website. It feels more like watching a live tennis match, than a usual televised match does. It has an extremely low camera angle and the camera actually doesn’t even manage to fit the entire width of the court, so it has to pan across to catch all of the action, even though it is filmed on widescreen, so imagine how frustrating it must be for those watching on 4:3. I spent most of the time marvelling at the pace that the players can generate on their groundstrokes, and with the sound effects, you can hear the clean sound of the ball coming right off the strings of the players’ racquets and all of the little steps required for each player to get into position, especially if it’s someone who is a busy mover, like David Ferrer.

I like the way they start off each match in a concert-like atmosphere on Court Central with the lights dimmed down and the spotlight being placed firmly on the players, as they walk onto the stage. The French crowd also seem to be fairly enthusiastic, and more vocal about their support than most other crowds in the world. Unfortunately the camera angle does the spectacle no favours, with it being filmed relatively low with the court resembling the shape of a square, more so than its actual dimensions. It’s harder to appreciate the pace and depth that the players are generating on their shots, although it is easier to appreciate touch shots and excellent feel, which both Murray and Stepanek exhibited yesterday. Andy Murray was particularly impressive yesterday, showing a lot of confidence in his game, at times toying with Querrey, with short slices, dropshots, lobs and more. At one point, he hit one of those flick backhands that Roger Federer occasionally hits, where he was running with his back from the net and flicked his racquet across over his head to hit a passing shot winner.

The match of the day was between Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Radek Stepanek. Stepanek played close to his best tennis for most of the match, putting Tsonga under a lot of pressure to come up with passing shots, particularly on Tsonga’s weaker backhand side and showed some superb feel and athleticism at the net. With the encouragement of the crowd, Tsonga was extremely fired up for the occasion, although the level of his play fluctuated far more than Stepanek’s, going through several ups and downs during the match. But on the crucial points, Tsonga delivered on the passing shots, especially on the backhand side where it really looks like he has to labour hard to find the strength needed to line it up, generate the racquet head speed and hit the desired target. He finished the match with a flourish hitting three spectacular winners to break serve Stepanek’s serve to win the match.

I also managed to catch some of the action between Italy’s Simone Bolelli and James Blake. Bolelli is an excellent shotmaker and can hit his fair share of flashy winners on a good day, but also has the reputation of being fairly inconsistent. It was interesting to note in this particular match the vast difference between the quality of shot that Bolelli hits when he is set up for the shot and when he has to improvise. Bolelli is fairly upright in his stance on both the forehand and backhand wings when he is in position, so whenever he was forced to hit a shot off the back foot or even stretch out to hit a squash shot or blocked shot, his movement and racquet control looked incredibly mediocre.