Australian Open 2008 akan datang, Rebound Ace diganti

Australian Open yang akan berlangsung pada bulan Januari tahun depan sebentar lagi akan datang. Panitia mulai berbenah menjelang turnamen ini. Salah satu agendanya adalah penggantian lapangan hijau Rebound Ace yang lama menjadi bahan Plexicushion. Berikut cuplikan berita mas Adjie atau Kresno Djayandaru yang saya ambil dari milis tennis-indonesia:

Australian Court Surface is speeding up. Never in doubt

For the benefit of Federer and Hewitt, yet Hewitt will still *** about something. Funny how they try and use scientific facts, have they catered to humidity, colder weather which will impact on the court.

http://www.theage. com.au/news/ tennis… 321694990. html

Australian Open Court Surface is speeding up

TENNIS Australia officials believe the new surface for the Australian Open is set to provide a faster, more attractive tournament in January.

The tournament will be played on new blue plexicushion courts, which have replaced the green Rebound Ace courts that were criticised by Australia’s Lleyton Hewitt, who argued for a faster and more consistent surface.

Tournament director Craig Tiley said Tennis Australia tests have shown that the courts already were faster than the old Rebound Ace courts.

Tiley said the courts would get even faster by January 14, although they would still be slower than Wimbledon and the US Open.

“Our plan has been to be in the medium to medium-fast pace range. On the ITF (International Tennis Federation) scale, that’s about 34 to 38, and we’re very pleased to be able to tell everyone that scientific testing has got us right smack bang in the middle of that, which is where we want to be,” Tiley said.

“It’s going to get quite a bit of playing time and environment over a period of time, so we expect them to increase in speed by a couple of points.

“So from a scientific point of view, it has worked out great, and so far the player perception has been great but not everyone has hit on them. So once you’ve got 500 players hit on them, there’ll probably be a range of perceptions, but we know scientifically now that at least we can back ourselves up with these tests.”

He said the new surface would be more durable under heat stress than Rebound Ace. The remaining few courts at Melbourne Park will be completed by mid-December.

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