SME News Balkan. tournament directors are deliberately slowing down court surfaces in a move that plays into the hands of Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner, the two players who have dominated men\u2019s tennis in 2025.Alcaraz and Sinner, currently ranked No.1 and No.2 in the world, have contested the last three Grand Slam finals \u2013 at Roland-Garros, Wimbledon and the US Open \u2013 producing thrilling encounters that have captivated the sport. But Federer believes their supremacy has been aided by organisers adjusting conditions to encourage long rallies and more predictable outcomes.Speaking on Andy Roddick\u2019s podcast Served during the Laver Cup, Federer explained:> \u201cI understand the safety net that the tournament directors see in making the surface slower. It\u2019s for the weaker player \u2013 he has to hit extra amazing shots to beat Sinner. Whereas if it\u2019s quick, he might just blast a few and sneak past. So they\u2019re thinking: I like Sinner-Alcaraz in the finals. It works for the game.\u201dThe 20-time Grand Slam champion went further, admitting he feels partly responsible for similar decisions in the past.> \u201cI fault myself for the Laver Cup court speed,\u201d Federer said. \u201cI was part of the decision-making. But it can\u2019t be that Reilly Opelka is kick-serving indoors against Casper Ruud and Ruud can still step back and hit a cross-court winner on break point. That should be harder. We, the tournament directors, need to fix it.\u201dFederer argued that modern tennis has lost some of its variety because organisers have standardised conditions across events.> \u201cWhat we\u2019d like to see is Alcaraz and Sinner figure it out on lightning-fast courts, then again on super slow courts, and see how that matches up,\u201d he said. \u201cBack in the day, only 12 tournaments counted for rankings. Players would focus on their best surfaces, and when styles clashed \u2013 the attacker versus the retriever \u2013 those were the best matches. Now, because of the uniform ball and court speeds, everyone plays the same style.\u201dThe comments highlight an ongoing debate within tennis about whether the homogenisation of court speeds has stifled stylistic diversity, and whether the sport should encourage a broader range of playing conditions to test champions in different ways.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
SME News Balkan. tournament directors are deliberately slowing down court surfaces in a move that plays into the hands of Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner, the two players who have dominated men\u2019s tennis in 2025.Alcaraz and Sinner, currently ranked No.1 and No.2 in the world, have contested the last three Grand Slam finals \u2013 at…<\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2131,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tennis"],"yoast_head":"\n