The courts at the Rod Laver arena were relaid prior to this tournament.

They were rumoured to be faster, with a lower bounce.

After having watched a few matches, I would say that they are taking a lot of spin, for starters, which is great for the all-court players who use slice as well as top spin. Drop shots could well be more effective too.

They do seem quite bouncey though. This ought to favour the baseliners, although this bounce can be less of a factor via heavy use of spin, for example with stop-volleys. Mind you, the flat-hitting that I've seen has been effective too (i.e. Blake!), so the ball can skid through somewhat too.

And I think that they are a little quicker than in previous years, although not as quick as I thought that they might be. There seems to be a lot of short matches and bagels, which would indicate that the points have been short, which players finding it realtively easy to gain some serious momentum.

I wonder if the courts are less soft? That used to be a cause of injury for the players (twisted ankles, knees), but players are retiring mainly because of the heat.

I do like the courts though. They seem offer something for everyone. :)

Does anyone else have any thoughts on this? :shrug:

Roger seems to think that they play pretty much the same as last year. :shrug:

However, he has said that he can't see any marks on the court, which makes it difficult to decide when to challenge a line call. That would seem to support your hypothesis that they are less soft, petalp! :ok:

Jedi, I think that I had read Roger say something to that effect!! I hadn't read the bit about less marks on the courts though.. :)

I think that I had also read that Nadia Petrova thought that they were quicker and the bounce a little lower, but another player (whose name escapes me) also thought that they were more or less the same too.

I wonder if they play any differently in the heat btw? The old ones used to slow down a little (balls would 'stick' more on the court I think) and also carry a higher risk of injury too, with players feet tending to stick more too..

I think the comment about the marks may have been in his interview after the first round match (on court, possibly). It seems no-one has really complained about injuries due to RA yet, so maybe they've indeed fixed the problem. Of course they always insisted there was no problem. :shrug: