US Open: Courts in Flushing Meadows deliberately slowed down

The US Open admitted on Wednesday night that they deliberately slowed down the speed of the last Grand Slam tournament of the year. This was apparently the tournament director’s reaction to player feedback.

“The general feedback from the past years – both women and men – was: “The courts are gaining more and more speed,” said Tournament Director David Brewer on Wednesday evening. “We have therefore decided to respond to this feedback and take countermeasures. At the same time, however, we wanted to ensure that all courts on our course were to be used uniformly.”

Specifically, the organizers can influence the speed with the concentration of sand on the top layer of the surface. According to Brewer, this also contributed to the deceleration. In addition, the base layer on each course in Flushing Meadows was changed from asphalt to cement.

In recent days the theory has also been spread that the US Open deliberately opted for slower places to give US players a possible advantage. The best known representative of this thesis is the Davis Cup captain of the United States, Jim Courier.

When asked, however, Brewer declined. “I’m trying to remember if we’ve ever philosophized about how we Americans could help with the rubber. I have never had such conversations here in my 20 years,” he said.

While Sloane Stephens, Madison Keys and Serena Williams have played big in the women’s singles in recent years, the USA have been waiting for their first title in the men’s singles since 2003, when Andy Roddick, who had reached the semi-finals three years later, triumphed. John Isner reached the quarter-finals this year, but failed there due to Juan Martin del Potro.