By Richard Pagliaro | @Tennis_Now | Wednesday, August 14, 2024
Photo: Brad Penner/US Open/USTA
New fairways rather than fast lanes await players at this month’s US Open.
The US Open begins on Monday, August 26, but players will begin practicing at the USTA-Billie Jean King National Tennis Center starting this weekend and into next week’s US Open fan week.
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Players are already using the US Open ball at this week’s Cincinnati Open, so adjusting to surface speed in New York will be one of the biggest adjustments before the final major of the season.
US Open 2024 surface speed ‘average’, US Open tournament director and chief executive, Professional Tennis Stacey Allaster told Tennis Now today.
Tennis fans know that the US Open resurfaces all of its courts each summer in front of Flushing Meadows.
Have you ever wondered how the US Open decides the optimal surface speed for the most famous public courts in the country?
We posed this question to the US Open Tournament Director during today’s USTA Zoom media call to promote the 2024 US Open, which opens Fan Week this Sunday evening.
“We aim for the court pace rating to be moderately fast,” Stacey Allaster told Tennis Now on today’s Zoom call. “The average, according to the ITF, is 41 to 44 (on the CPR scale). “All 17 courts have appeared and the average CPR is now 42.
“That’s where we like to be at the beginning of the tournament, so that as we ease him in, he gets closer (to the goal).
Allaster said several factors — including player feedback and the speed of the pitch that provides a balance of offense and defense — play a role in setting the speed of the surface each year.
“We get feedback from players from player development,” Allaster told Tennis Now. “We know that that pitch speed gives us the right balance for a style of play that is successful.
“So that’s what goes into that decision and where we sit today as we wait for the first balls to be hit.”
