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 Types of tennis match, doubles and singles matches. A variet ...

. 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. there are 211 nat ...

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 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. While grass courts are more tra ...

s. The use of carpet courts in

ATP Tour The ATP Tour (known as ATP World Tour between January 2009 and December 2018) is the sole worldwide top-tier tennis tour for men organized by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) founded in 1990 that replaced the earlier dual Grand Prix ...

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

WTA Tour The WTA Tour (also known as the Hologic WTA Tour for sponsorship reasons) is a worldwide top-tier tennis tour for women and organized by the Women's Tennis Association. The second-tier tour is the WTA 125 series, and third-tier is the ITF Wome ...

tournaments have used carpet courts since the last edition of the

Tournoi de Québec The was a WTA Tour International level tennis tournament held in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. Held from 1993 to 2018, the tournament was the last women's professional tennis tournament still played on indoor carpet courts. It was held at the PE ...

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

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, used in sports arenas, residential lawns and commercial applications that traditionally use grass. It is much more durable than grass and easily maintained wi ...

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, England. It has a seating capacity of 5,272. Since the hall's opening by Queen Victoria in 1871, the world's leading artists from many performance genres ...

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 tennis event in the men's annual calendar after the four majors, as it features the top eight singles players and top eight doubles teams based on their ...

, WCT Finals, U.S. Pro Indoor, ECC Antwerp,

Kremlin Cup The Kremlin Cup () is a professional tennis tournament played on indoor hard courts, which was suspended in 2022. It was part of the ATP Tour 250 series of the ATP Tour and was a Premier Tournament on the WTA Tour. It was held annually at the ...

Paris Masters The Paris Masters (formerly known as the Paris Open, and currently called the Rolex Paris Masters for sponsorship reasons) is an annual indoor tennis tournament for male professional players held in Paris, France at the Accor Arena, in the neighb ...

and

Zagreb Indoors The Zagreb Indoors (currently sponsored by PBZ) was a men's tennis event on the ATP Tour held in the Croatian capital of Zagreb, other than in 1998 when it was held in Split. From 1996-1998 the tournament was named the Croatian Indoors. From 2009 ...

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 and the ATP Challenger Tour. It was formed in September 1972 by Donald Dell, Jack Kramer, and Cliff Drysdale to p ...

(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 type of 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 concrete, asphalt or concrete, and covered with acrylic resin ...

s which he said will reduce the risk of injury. A number of players, including

Mario Ančić Mario Ančić (; born 30 March 1984) is a Croatian former professional tennis player who currently works as a private equity vice president in New York City. He won three singles titles and five doubles titles on the ATP Tour. Ančić's career- ...

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 WTA 125K series is the secondary professional tennis circuit organised by the Women's Tennis Association. The 2019 WTA 125K series calendar consists of eleven tournaments, each with a total prize fund of $125,000 except the Oracle Challenger S ...

, the only tournament played on carpet was the

Taipei Open The Taipei Open or Taipei WTA Challenger () was a tournament for female professional tennis players played on indoor carpet courts. The event was classified as a WTA 125K series, WTA 125 tournament, and held annually in November in Taipei Cit ...

. 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. It was founded in 1976 as a replacement for the ILTF Satellite Circuit (founded in 1971) as ...

still has several carpet court events.

References

{{Tennis box Tennis court surfaces *

Types

Professional tournaments

See also

References