Grand Slam courts /Google Images
In tennis, there are three main court surfaces: grass, clay, and hard court. Each of these court types possess their own strengths and weaknesses in their own ways. For one, clay is much harder to attack on, meaning that players who like to play from the baseline excel on the red dirt surface.
The grass court is the exact opposite. Because it makes the ball go faster, the grass surface favors the attackers more than the defenders, thus why Roger Federer has won eight Wimbledon titles and Rafael Nadal has only won two.
However, the grass and clay courts aren’t necessarily the best courts to bet on due to the fact that they’re more unpredictable than others. That being said, due to the sheer number of tournaments on this court type and its consistency, the hard court is the best type of court to bet on.
The Hard Court
At one point in every professional tennis player’s career, they’ve trained for some time on the hard courts. This is because hard courts are much more accessible throughout the world since they’re cheaper to build and easier to maintain. The tennis court construction involves laying a durable hard surface, typically made of asphalt or concrete, which is then topped with an acrylic or synthetic material.
If you look at the tournaments list on the ATP Tour website, you’ll see that the hard-court tournaments outnumber the grass and clay tournaments by far. Out of the nine Masters 1000 ATP tournaments, six of them are played on the hard court.
Because of this, the hard surface yields more opportunities for bettors to make their fortune, especially since it’s the most recognizable of the courts. I kid you not, there are people out there who don’t know that there are grass and clay courts!
When people associate courts with tennis, they think of the hard court and that’s because it’s the best out of the types. With more hard court tournaments means more prize money and that overall, means a bigger betting community which yields larger rewards for the bettors.
Adjusting to a Different Court-Type
The reason as to why grass and clay courts are harder to adjust to is because the hard courts are the easiest to learn. Hard courts take aspects of the grass and clay surfaces and combine them together into a much simpler playstyle.
On grass, it’s all about serving and volleying and quick points while on clay it’s all about long fought-out points with dropshots being a primary weapon due to how slow the ball can move. However, because the hard court takes aspects from both, the hard courts are always the favorite for the tennis world.
This is evident throughout the pro tour as well. You can see that Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer both have their own domains. For Roger Federer, his aggressive quick play makes him suitable for grass and Rafael Nadal’s grind-like style makes him the perfect candidate for clay.
However, because of the hard court’s diverse style, both Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal are equally dominant on this court-type. The same goes for the other players. Dominic Thiem, who is usually a clay court enthusiast, also excels on the hard court since his huge backhands play a key factor into him winning matches.
Marin Cilic, who has won the U.S. Open Grand Slam, credits his strong serve and big baseline to his achievements on the tour—a reflection of the opportunities that the hard-court surface brings to players novice and veteran alike.
To further my point, two of the world’s biggest tournaments—the Grand Slams—are played on the hard court. The Grand Slam begins with the Australian Open, a hard-court tournament, and ends with the U.S. Open, the biggest hard-court tournament to date.
This means that players have more chances to gain points and prize money through this particular surface rather than on clay or grass. Overall, the hard surface is a surface which incorporates the elements of the two other surfaces and combines into one type of court which presents players an equal opportunity to succeed.
Conclusion
Why is it harder to bet on clay and grass than it is to bet on hard court tournaments? The simplest reason is that there are less tournaments to bet on for these two surfaces and that it’s much more unpredictable since there are other factors to take into account.
Some of these factors could be the adjustments needed to be able to play on grass or clay with both courts being more slippery and stressing factors of playstyle not normally stressed such as serving and volleying or sliding and drop-shotting.
However, the hard court is the easiest court to bet on due to the sheer number of tournaments possessing this surface alongside the ease of being able to play on this court. When you look for profitable tournaments, they’re usually on the hard court. There are no outside pieces you need to take into account and this makes it one of the most versatile options to choose from.
