Shank, how can you say that most ridiculous of all changes is french open?? the most ridiculous changes have been made at wimbledon..
Ball is bouncing 35-40% HIGHER than 2000, ball is going slower by 15-20%, S&V is a thing of the past for Wimbledon, and so on.. I mean, the tournament with the most tradition in the sport is playing like "green" fast clay...
slowing down wimbledon was somewhat understandable.......grass by its very nature is lively and plays quite fast as it is.......great servers becker, sampras, goran etc were hitting humanly unreturnable serves using old frames and natural gut rackets........with these new rackets and latest strings, it would be almost impossible to return serve if the grass was just as fast.......
i think they have finally found the balance on the surface.......good serves are still rewarded.......roddick with no backhand could make 3 finals on the surface.......players can serve and volley with few tweaks to their game but they just don't choose to.......
on the other hand they sped up french open unnecessarily.......there was no need to change it......french open was fast clay as it is.......now it's like a fast hardcourt.......
What you understand about "understandable" about grass is not so understandable for others... slowing the courts of SW19 was a major change to tennis, and TENNIS TRADITION, unlike the changes they have done on clay... First let's get into the "understandable" part for you on grass, a game that was played as the major S&V tourney on the tour... True, raquet technology, even player preparation for the tour has changed, movement, fitness the works.. But Wimbledon took a 180º change and ended up with green "clay"... whereas clay still plays like fast clay, grass plays like a whole different surface, giving advantage to baseliners and put an end to a tradition about serve and volley...
True, some modifications were in order, but not that terrible change they did for the surface... You can't enjoy a good serve and volleyer now a days on wimbledon, due to the technology and the way players prepare for matches nowadays. The fact that the ball is bouncing 35-40% higher than in the 90s and that the ball is way slower just proves that changes for wimbledon are as of now the biggest change in tennis tournaments for the last decade. I loved to watch Becker, and Edberg... with his beautiful volleys and the ability to prove their skills on that surface, now, all we have are baseliners (Fed included) who can play as hardcourts.
So I have to disagree... Wimbledon made a terrible mistake and changed the way the game played for the most important and with most tradition on tour... Shame on the organisation... Still, as "understandable" as you might think, I haven't seen you complaint about all these changes because it surely helped your player the most as it seems.
