World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka is enamored with the new surfaces at Indian Wells, the Belarusian saying on Tuesday that the faster courts would play into her powerful game, while Carlos Alcaraz said he did not understand the reason for the change.
Indian Wells, which has long been known for its gritty, slow hard courts, has been resurfaced this year by Laykold, the company that also provides surfaces for the Miami Open and the US Open, to make playing conditions more consistent.
“I love them [the courts]. They’re a little bit faster, which is good for me, right?” Sabalenka told reporters.
Photo: EPA-EFE
“It feels good so far. I’ll tell you later after my first match. I hope I’ll still like it,” she added with a smile.
Another big server, Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan, said she had not noticed a huge change when she practiced on them.
“I feel that it’s not much faster, but I will say maybe the bounce [is] a little bit lower,” said Rybakina, the 2023 champion. “The past few days were very windy and a lot of sun came, so it’s also a bit different, the bounce, but I think the court’s still nice.”
Although the fast courts are supposed to help bigger servers, they could spell trouble for players such as two-time defending champion Alcaraz, who relies more on his creative shot-making than sheer power.
The Spaniard arrived in the southern California desert late on Monday and said he had not had a chance to try out the courts.
“Honestly, it’s a change that I didn’t understand when I saw it. It was 25 years, the tournament, it was the same court, and then right now has changed. I don’t know the reason why they did it,” he said.
“I have to practise on it,” he added. “I consider myself a player who adapts very well my game on the surfaces and all the conditions that you’re playing on.”
Russian Daniil Medvedev, a self-described hard-court specialist who called the Indian Wells courts “a disgrace” two years ago, was unimpressed after practicing on them.
“It’s okay, I like Indian Wells, I even like the courts now, but they seem to be almost slower than before, very slow,” he said.
First-round action was to start yesterday.
In the men’s singles qualifiers, Taiwan’s Tseng Chun-hsin on Monday lost 6-2, 6-1 against Giulio Zeppieri of Italy.
Three Taiwanese are to play in the round-of-32 of the women’s doubles tomorrow.
Hsieh Su-wei and China’s Zhang Shuai face Japanese pair Eri Hozumi and Shuko Aoyama; Wu Fang-hsien and Jiang Xinyu of China are to play Chinese pair Yang Zhaoxuan and Xu Yifan; and Chan Hao-ching and Veronika Kudermetova of Russia take on Spain’s Cristina Bucsa and Miyu Kato of Japan.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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