Fans are constantly talking about surface speed … I have written a lot about surface speed … yet somehow, I haven’t published complete surface speed numbers for three years. Time to remedy that.
If you’re interested in the long-form explanation of how these numbers work, what their limitations are, and so on, check out my post from three years ago. I’ll give a brief overview here, as well:
I rate the playing speed of every ATP surface using ace rate as a proxy for surface characteristics. Ace rate doesn’t tell the whole story, of course, but as you’ll see, it’s a pretty good first- or second-order approximation. For each tournament, I look at the ace rates in every match, and control for the servers and returners in those matches. (The ace rate for every John Isner match will be high, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the surface is fast.) I say “playing speed” because ace rate depends on a wide range of variables (heat, humidity, balls, etc), so it reflects how the court “plays”–not anything inherent about the physical makeup of the surface itself.
The main advantages of this approach are that it is simple to understand (more aces = higher rating!), and that we can calculate it with limited information–data that is available for ATP matches back to the early 1990s. Court Pace Index and other Hawkeye-based metrics surely have a lot more to add, but they require much more sophisticated tools–tools that federations and tours aren’t about to share with lowly fans like us.
A tour-average surface rates 1.0. The usual range for tour events is between 0.50 (slow clay) and 1.50 (fast hard or grass). The following table shows the 2017-19 speed ratings for all tour events on the 2019 calendar, including the Davis Cup Finals:
Tournament Surface 2019 Ace% 2019 2018 2017
Chengdu Hard 14.8% 1.57 1.05 1.16
Antalya Grass 14.6% 1.47 1.25 1.74
Tour Finals Hard 11.7% 1.31 1.12 0.75
Marseille Hard 11.7% 1.29 1.21 1.34
Newport Grass 12.7% 1.27 0.87 0.76
Australian Open Hard 12.9% 1.27 1.16 1.14
Brisbane Hard 13.3% 1.26 1.35 0.99
Atlanta Hard 14.3% 1.25 1.01 0.86
Shanghai Hard 13.0% 1.24 1.17 1.53
Sao Paulo Clay 9.8% 1.24 0.89 0.92
Halle Grass 12.8% 1.23 1.16 1.18
Stuttgart Grass 14.5% 1.23 1.42 1.27
Sofia Hard 11.1% 1.21 1.14 1.33
Antwerp Hard 11.2% 1.21 1.25 1.06
Davis Cup Finals Hard 11.9% 1.20
Metz Hard 13.5% 1.20 1.51 1.34
Paris Bercy Hard 11.9% 1.19 1.06 1.03
Montpellier Hard 13.4% 1.17 1.13 1.11
Vienna Hard 11.4% 1.16 1.16 0.98
New York Hard 17.0% 1.16 1.05
Tournament Surface 2019 Ace% 2019 2018 2017
Winston Salem Hard 12.1% 1.15 1.01 1.07
Basel Hard 14.2% 1.14 1.03 0.77
Beijing Hard 11.6% 1.12 1.03 0.91
Washington Hard 15.5% 1.11 0.99 1.11
Moscow Hard 13.5% 1.11 1.21 1.45
Delray Beach Hard 13.9% 1.10 0.98 0.97
Doha Hard 10.0% 1.10 0.88 1.02
St. Petersburg Hard 8.4% 1.09 1.13 0.80
Stockholm Hard 11.2% 1.08 1.03 1.05
Tokyo Hard 11.6% 1.08 1.34 1.18
London Grass 12.8% 1.07 1.25 1.20
Auckland Hard 10.7% 1.06 1.17 1.11
Pune Hard 14.8% 1.05 0.99
Cincinnati Hard 11.6% 1.04 0.98 1.22
Canada Hard 10.8% 1.03 1.17 0.97
Dubai Hard 8.4% 1.02 1.04 0.91
Eastbourne Grass 13.2% 0.99 0.94 1.00
Wimbledon Grass 10.5% 0.99 1.14 1.03
Sydney Hard 9.3% 0.98 1.25 1.10
Zhuhai Hard 6.9% 0.97
Tournament Surface 2019 Ace% 2019 2018 2017
Marrakech Clay 8.4% 0.97 0.62 0.77
US Open Hard 10.2% 0.97 0.98 0.96
s'Hertogenbosch Grass 10.2% 0.95 0.99 0.89
Cordoba Clay 6.9% 0.94
Rotterdam Hard 8.0% 0.90 1.13 1.09
Lyon Clay 9.9% 0.90 0.89 0.85
Gstaad Clay 5.6% 0.88 1.16 0.92
Acapulco Hard 11.1% 0.86 1.03 0.92
Miami Masters Hard 9.5% 0.86 0.78 0.84
Los Cabos Hard 6.5% 0.85 0.80 1.28
Geneva Clay 6.6% 0.81 1.04 0.85
Bastad Clay 7.1% 0.80 0.72 0.88
Kitzbuhel Clay 6.3% 0.77 0.84 1.02
Hamburg Clay 7.7% 0.76 0.69 1.02
Indian Wells Hard 7.6% 0.76 0.84 1.03
Houston Clay 9.2% 0.75 0.81 0.94
Madrid Clay 7.0% 0.71 0.84 0.89
Roland Garros Clay 7.0% 0.71 0.72 0.76
Rome Clay 7.0% 0.69 0.69 0.85
Munich Clay 7.0% 0.67 0.74 0.99
Tournament Surface 2019 Ace% 2019 2018 2017
Umag Clay 5.6% 0.65 0.78 0.61
Rio de Janeiro Clay 5.9% 0.63 0.71 0.68
Budapest Clay 7.0% 0.62 0.62 0.59
Barcelona Clay 5.6% 0.59 0.57 0.55
Estoril Clay 4.7% 0.54 0.58 0.53
Buenos Aires Clay 3.9% 0.52 0.65 0.88
Monte Carlo Clay 4.7% 0.50 0.56 0.50
The Tour Finals played as fast as it has in years–the 2014-16 ratings were 0.89 and 1.06–suggesting either that the organizers finally laid down a proper hard court, or that 15 matches is an insufficient sample. (It certainly isn’t ideal, and the same can be said for 28- and 32-draw tourneys.)
The Davis Cup Finals played more like a typical indoor hard court. At the other extreme, Indian Wells was particularly slow this year, even by its own clay-like standards. At least at a few events, surface speed convergence may have slowed down.