LTA digs up clay courts just as they are needed

Britain’s leading players have been caught unawares by the Lawn Tennis Association’s decision to dig up the clay courts at the National Tennis Centre in south-west London, just at the time of year when the tour is about to move on to the red stuff.

British No 2 Cameron Norrie – who lost in three sets in the Miami Masters here to Australia’s Jordan Thompson – admitted that he had been intending to practise at the NTC ahead of his next commitment, the US Clay Court Championship that starts in Houston on April 8.

“I saw they [the clay courts] were dug up but I just assumed they would be ready,” said Norrie after his 4-6, 7-6, 6-3 defeat. “I am going to have to find somewhere [else].”

Meanwhile, Dan Evans – who was due to play Malek Jaziri in Miami – will now have to travel to Spain to prepare for the European clay-court swing. A leading British coach questioned why the work could not have waited  until the summer, by which time the main body of the tennis tour will have switched to grass. The NTC – which is located in Roehampton – has not been used as an official training base for elite tennis since Bob Brett cut back the performance network in 2014, but it still provides an important option for players like Norrie, Johanna Konta and Heather Watson, who all base themselves in London.

There are six clay-type courts at the NTC, but only two of them are genuine crushed brick of the kind used at the French Open.  An LTA spokesman said that these “were in urgent need of addressing. The earliest opportunity to do this was in the spring of 2019. Performance coaches and players were notified of the changes. In the meantime, additional clay courts are provided nearby at Queen’s Club.” The revamp is expected to be finished in May, just as the clay-court season is drawing to a close.

It might seem straightforward to set up an authentic clay court, but they require considerable care otherwise the surface becomes uneven. Unfortunately, the old ones were left in charge of the NTC’s gardener. This may be one reason why Dominic Inglot, Britain’s No 3 doubles player, prefers to carry out his domestic training on less finicky surfaces such as shale or the American clay substitute Har-Tru.

“I did my clay-court preparations on the green shale courts at the All England Club last year,” said Inglot. “I found that they were better to train on than the clay at the NTC.” This echoes the point made by  Watson in 2015, after she fell and grazed herself at the NTC, and said: “It’s hard to keep a [clay] court that doesn’t get sunlight on it.”

The LTA is also understood to be considering the installation of Padel courts on their nine-acre site in Roehampton. A possible deal is in the pipeline with British Padel, the governing body of this fast-growing racket sport.