Federer: Slow court speed benefits Alcaraz, Sinner

In tennis, the concept of "court speed" refers to the speed of movement and bounce of the ball after hitting the court. A fast court causes the ball to retain a lot of speed, go fast and bounce low; slow courts cause the ball to slow down and often bounce high, creating conditions for players who specialize in defense or durable play.

The International Tennis Federation (ITF) classifies court speed into five groups: slow, medium-slow, medium, medium-fast and fast. In general, grass courts are the fastest, then hard courts and finally clay courts are the slowest, due to differences in bounce and friction on each court surface.

Federer expressed dissatisfaction with the current trend when all pitches have slow speeds, regardless of the venue. The former Swiss tennis player suspects that tournament operators are deliberately slowing down the court speed to facilitate matches between Alcaraz and Sinner appearing regularly.

"I understand tournaments want to be safe when slowing down the court ", Federer said on the sidelines of the Laver Cup in San Francisco recently. "With that court speed, the weaker players have to have excellent shots to overcome Sinner. But if the court is fast, they can hit a few shots at the right time and win. That's why tournaments tend to want Alcaraz and Sinner in the final, because that's good for tennis. "

Court speed has changed dramatically since the 1990s, when serve and net play was played. also popular thanks to faster ground conditions. Since the mid-2000s, tournament organizers have recognized the benefits of slowing down the court to reduce serve dominance and create more attractive backcourt attacks.

Since Federer and Rafael Nadal retired, the Alcaraz - Sinner matches have gradually created a new battle in men's tennis.. This year, they became the first pair in the Open era to face each other in three Grand Slam finals in the same season, from Roland-Garros, Wimbledon to the US Open. Overall in 2025, Alcaraz and Sinner have met in 5 finals, with the remaining two being at the Rome Masters and the Cincinnati Open.

Federer has long advocated applying different court speeds in tennis tournaments. During his playing days, the legendary 20-time Grand Slam champion was also famous for his ability to adapt to different playing surfaces and conditions thanks to his diverse playing style.

According to Federer, superstars like Alcaraz and Sinner need to be challenged more from the diversity of court surfaces and playing conditions, instead of being favored on slow courts like they are now.

"We Not only do we need fast courts, but we also want to see how Alcaraz or Sinner adapt to extremely fast courts, then face each other on extremely slow courts to see how things are different, " Federer said. "Nowadays, players play almost the same way. That's because tournaments allow this based on ball speed and court surface, making each week almost identical. You can win Roland-Garros, Wimbledon and the US Open with just one style of play. "

Federer even said that returning serve is no longer as difficult as before. "I feel like it's too easy for players to return serves now, " he said. "I don't know if the court conditions are slower or if they are better. Returning the serve used to be a very difficult technique. Now, they just stand there, that's it ".

But the former Swiss player also admitted that he also contributed to this problem by making the court at the Laver Cup, an event he founded, slow.

"I told Reilly Opelka that this was not good and I blame myself for participating in deciding the field surface at Laver Cup. It was unacceptable that his high spin serve was easily returned by Casper Ruud. Opelka is one of the best serving players in the world today, but Ruud can still hit back from waist height and execute a passing shot - hitting past the opponent's reach - cross-court right at break point.. I think Ruud should have had it a little harder. So tournament directors like us need to fix this", Federer emphasized.