Mastering the nuances of clay: Balancing patience, power and positioning

MADRID -- In the mind of the casual tennis fan, clay courts seem to look a lot alike. But in the gauntlet that is the European clay season, nothing could be further from the truth.

Indoors at Stuttgart, the red dirt is as fast and slippery as a snake -- a marked advantage for the big hitters. Outside in the warm, thin air of Madrid, more than 2,000 feet above sea level, the ball flies. Rome and Paris, much closer to the earth’s crust, feature numbingly slow, crunchy clay that favors defensive players. Rallies are longer and patience quickly can grow shorter.

The courts at these four major clay events are as different as the cultures of the countries who host them -- Germany, Spain, Italy and France. The only thing everyone agrees on: The big winners are the locker room attendants, the detergent companies and the on-site washing machines and dryers.

At the Mutua Madrid Open, the season’s first Hologic WTA Tour 1000 event on clay, five of the top six top-ranked players discussed the many nuances of adapting to clay.

Iga Swiatek: Adjusting string tension to help stay in control

It’s easy to focus on the trophy-lifting ceremony at the end of the tournament, but the real work comes in the early stages as players and their coaches finetune their approach to adjust to the conditions peculiar to the venue. It’s almost a forensic investigation.

For Swiatek, solving Madrid has been an elusive case. While she’s now won two titles each in Stuttgart, Rome and Paris, she has a single quarterfinal appearance so far in Madrid. The main thing, she said, was to control her shots here despite the altitude.

“We played with Roland Garros balls in Stuttgart, so my main goal was to play as hard as possible, because these balls are heavy,” Swiatek said. “Here we also have heavy balls, but I feel like they are more like flying like bullets.

“Tactically, you just have to play fast and move your opponent around, because it’s hard to come back and recover from all this sliding.”

The consensus among these elite players is that Swiatek and Coco Gauff are the best movers on clay, the most accomplished sliders. That’s a given, but one variable, field-leveling factor is string tension. Looser strings mean more power and less control, while tighter brings less power and more control. Through pre-tournament practice and early matches, Swiatek and her coach Tomasz Wiktorowski worked to dial in the best number.

“My coach is already working on that, and I think every hour [on court] is going to give me a lot,” she said. “I’m pretty happy that my coach is kind of strict with that, because sometimes for me it’s hard to make a straightforward decision.

“For sure this is something that two years ago when I played here I didn’t do well, and I’m going to use his experience to make the transition faster.”

Coco Gauff: Timing the slide leads to a quick recovery  

Five years ago, a 14-year-old Gauff became the youngest Roland Garros junior champion in a quarter century. Last year, she made the finals at the senior event in Paris and her WTA-level record on clay is 29-11, a win percentage of 72.5, the best for any surface.

Ask her why clay is so conducive to her game, and she immediately cites her forehand.

“The heaviness of it,” Gauff said. “I think that set up a lot of opportunities for me last year at the French Open. I’m going to be hoping to use that this season, too.

Because the bounce of the ball is higher and more forgiving, players are comfortable adjusting their position farther behind the baseline. As a result, depth on groundstrokes is important, Gauff said, perhaps even more on clay.

Her greatest asset, quickness and the ability to track the ball off the opponent’s racquet, give her a big advantage on clay. But it is her exquisite sliding ability that truly separates her. Gauff times it perfectly, so when the ball connects with the racquet, she’s already decelerating.

“I think most people think sliding is something you do on the defense, but you have to use it on offense, too,” she said. “Even balls that are short you can really slide into them, even if it’s a really short slide. I think that’s what I was taught, going to Europe.

“Sliding, I feel like it’s really a skill you have to know when and how to do it. In Stuttgart, it was tough to find [the right timing]. Hopefully I’ll find it this week.”

Aryna Sabalenka: Patience before power is a winning formula

Sabalenka’s success on clay is a triumph of discipline and determination. Patience, until a few years ago, was never one of her virtues.

“Before I had a different mentality for the clay court,” Sabalenka said. “I felt like, `Oh, my God. It’s going to be long rallies. No, it’s not my favorite surface.’

“You have to stay patient and wait for a comfortable shot to hit your winner. You just have to wait for it. This is the toughest thing.”

The breakthrough came here two years ago, when Sabalenka blasted through the field, defeating World No.1 Ashleigh Barty in a three-set final.

“It meant a lot,” Sabalenka said. “I proved to myself and I proved to everyone else that I can play well on the clay court. So it was really important win for me and since then I really have a strong belief on myself in the clay.”

That belief carried her into the finals at Stuttgart the past two years, where she lost to Swiatek. Despite the most recent loss -- four days ago -- Sabalenka said she’s in a good frame of mind. It’s not surprising because her power game plays far better on the faster clay in Stuttgart and Madrid.

On Wednesday, she was refining her approach in practice and trying to time those faster balls. The key, she said, is to relax and not overthink things when an opportunity to end the point arises.

“Last match [against Swiatek], it’s, ‘This is a short ball, I have to do something extra.’ I have to remember I’m not under pressure on this surface, that I have time to hit my good shots with the power. So it’s given me extra power.”

Caroline Garcia: Don’t retreat too far behind the baseline

She grew up in France, where the red clay is ubiquitous. But soon it was clear that Garcia was destined to master less familiar surfaces. As a junior, she reached the semifinals of the Australian Open, Roland Garros and Wimbledon -- played on, respectively, hard courts, clay and grass.

The trend has continued as a professional. While hard courts clearly best support her big, aggressive game, she is formidable on clay. Last year, she upset Iga Swiatek in the quarterfinals of Swiatek’s home tournament, the BNP Paribas Poland Open in Warsaw, and went on to the title, her third on clay.

In theory, Garcia’s game should play well in these conditions. She was a Madrid semifinalist in 2018 and this is her seventh appearance in the main draw. Garcia is coming off a quarterfinal loss to Anastasia Potapova in Stuttgart.

“It’s a clay court, but it’s a slippery one, so it's not ideal to make the adjustment,” Garcia said. “Happy to be back outside and playing on good clay courts here. Definitely very fast with the altitude, so you have to adapt to that because it’s flying a little bit.”

Which is how she likes it. Not only is Garcia aggressive in terms of shot-making, but also positioning. She crowds the baseline, even on this surface. You won’t see her so far behind the baseline that you can barely see her on television.

“You can try to put me two meters behind,” Garcia said, “but I don’t know how to do it -- and it can be a disaster. I will get aced if I’m on the baseline and I'll get even more aced if I’m two meters behind.

“So it’s not working. It’s for other people.”

Jessica Pegula: Knowing when to slide and when not to slide

A year ago, Pegula had her best run on European clay. She won 11 of 14 matches, highlighted by a finals appearance in Madrid, where she lost to Ons Jabeur. It was Pegula’s first WTA Tour 1000 final on clay.

“Definitely was a big step for me, let alone being on clay,” she said. “I think was kind of a little bit of a surprise to myself and other people. Going into the French Open it really helped.

Specifically, she said, she was more open to change.

“I guess when you’re looking you probably don’t notice,” Pegula said, “but I think just little mental things, where to serve, where to return, what to do when the conditions get heavy, adding more drop shots, which I always did drop shot but maybe doing it more.”

Clay adjustments almost always start -- and stop -- with sliding.

“I think you can get lazy with your footwork if you do try to slide too much,” Pegula said, sounding like a coach. “So I think it’s kind of knowing when to use it and knowing when not to. I feel like I can slide just as good as Coco if I just ran and we just slid, but being able to use that in a point as a tool and then be able to switch that to offense, which is what Iga does very well, I think that’s kind of where it differentiates who’s good on clay.

“It’s clay but if you come in with a negative attitude, I feel like some players do that, don’t like the surface, you can be losing before you even get there. So I think it’s just keeping a really good open mindset.”