A carpet court is a type of

tennis court A tennis court is the venue where the sport of tennis is played. It is a firm rectangular surface with a low net stretched across the centre. The same surface can be used to play both doubles and singles matches. A variety of surfaces can be ...

. The

International Tennis Federation The International Tennis Federation (ITF) is the governing body of world tennis, wheelchair tennis, and beach tennis. It was founded in 1913 as the International Lawn Tennis Federation by twelve national tennis associations. As of 2016, there ...

describes the surface as a "textile or polymeric material supplied in rolls or sheets of finished product." It is one of the fastest court types, second only to

grass court A grass court is one of the four different types of tennis court on which the sport of tennis, originally known as "lawn tennis", is played. Grass courts are made of grasses in different compositions depending on the tournament. Although grass c ...

s. The use of carpet courts in

ATP Tour The ATP Tour is a worldwide top-tier tennis tour for men organized by the Association of Tennis Professionals. The second-tier tour is the ATP Challenger Tour and the third-tier is the ITF Men's World Tennis Tour. The equivalent women's organ ...

competitions ended in 2009. In women's tennis, no

WTA Tour The WTA Tour is a worldwide top-tier tennis tour for women organized by the Women's Tennis Association. The second-tier tour is the WTA 125K series, and third-tier is the ITF Women's Circuit. The men's equivalent is the ATP Tour. WTA Tour tou ...

tournaments have used carpet courts since the last edition of the

Tournoi de Québec The Tournoi de Québec (sponsored as Coupe Banque Nationale or known as National Bank Cup in English-language media) was a WTA Tour International level tennis tournament held in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. Held from 1993 to 2018, the tournament w ...

in 2018. ATP Challenger and ITF circuit level tournaments with carpet courts continue to exist up to the present (2022).

Types

There are two types of carpet court. The most common outdoor version consists of

artificial turf Artificial turf is a surface of synthetic fibers made to look like natural grass. It is most often used in arenas for sports that were originally or are normally played on grass. However, it is now being used on residential lawns and commerc ...

with a sand in-fill. This type of carpet court became popular in the 1980s in British and Asian tennis clubs for recreational play as they were easier and cheaper to maintain than grass courts. The other type used predominantly for indoor tennis is a textile surface of nylon or rubber matting laid out on a concrete base. They came in many kinds of synthetic materials, from different sources, which led to the tennis tournaments and organizers (WTA/ATP) typically identifying and labelling carpet courts by their brand names such as Greenset, Supreme or Taraflex. Carpet courts have been used in venues which are not normally used for tennis or other sports, such as the

Royal Albert Hall The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall on the northern edge of South Kensington, London. One of the UK's most treasured and distinctive buildings, it is held in trust for the nation and managed by a registered charity which receives no govern ...

in London. Players usually approach such courts as they would a grass court due to both being similarly fast surfaces.

Professional tournaments

The

ATP Finals The ATP Finals is the season-ending championship of the ATP Tour. It is the most significant event in the annual ATP calendar after the four majors as it features the top-eight singles players and top-eight doubles teams based on their results t ...

, WCT Finals,

U.S. Pro Indoor The U.S. Pro Indoor (mainly known as such during its run, but also as the ''U.S. Professional Indoor'', the ''Ebel U.S. Pro Indoor'', the ''Comcast U.S. Indoor'', and the ''Advanta Championships'') is a defunct professional tennis tournament held ...

, ECC Antwerp, Kremlin Cup,

Paris Masters The Paris Masters is an annual tennis tournament for male professional players held in Paris, France. It is played indoors at the AccorHotels Arena, in the neighborhood of Bercy. The event is part of the ATP Tour Masters 1000 on the Association ...

and Zagreb Indoors tournaments were all once played on carpet. In 2009, the governing body for men's professional tennis, the

Association of Tennis Professionals The Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) is the governing body of the men's professional tennis circuits – the ATP Tour, the ATP Challenger Tour and the ATP Champions Tour. It was formed in September 1972 by Donald Dell, Jack Kramer, a ...

(ATP), decided to end the use of carpet courts in top-tier tournaments. ATP spokesman Kris Dent said the most important reason for the change was to standardise indoor competitions to

hard court A hardcourt (or hard court) is a surface or floor on which a sport is played, most usually in reference to tennis courts. It is typically made of rigid materials such as asphalt or concrete, and covered with acrylic resins to seal the surface an ...

s which he said will reduce the risk of injury. A number of players including Mario Ančić and

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (; born 17 April 1985) is a French former professional tennis player. He was ranked as high as world No. 5 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), which he achieved in February 2012. Tsonga won 18 singles titles on th ...

criticised the move stating that professional tennis needed carpet courts for players to develop their ability for playing on fast courts. The last event played on carpet courts on the

, the

, ended after the 2018 edition. In the 2019 WTA 125K series, the only tournament played on carpet was the Taipei Open. The developmental

ATP Challenger Tour The ATP Challenger Tour, known until the end of 2008 as the ATP Challenger Series, is a series of international men's professional tennis tournaments. The Challenger Tour events are the second-highest tier of tennis competition, behind the ATP T ...

still has several carpet court events.

References

{{Tennis box Tennis court surfaces *