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See the history of "Zheng"!

On the evening of August 3rd, Beijing time, the women's singles final of the Paris Olympics tennis started.Zheng QinwenFacing Croatian player Vikic, the finalZheng Qinwen defeated 6-2, 6-3Vikic won China's first Olympic singles gold medal in tennis.

Watching Zheng Qinwen andVikicDuring the exciting match between the two, many netizens discovered that, unlike the flat and smooth hard tennis courts commonly seen in daily life, the two were competing on a piece of "red soil".

Image source: Weibo @咪咕体育

Lying on the ground to celebrate after winningZheng Qinwen, there was still a large piece of red soil stuck on his back.

Image source: CCTV video screenshot

So why let athletes play tennis on clay?

"Red Earth Glory"

In fact, this is not "red soil", but clay courts for playing tennis. As for why we play on this kind of ground, we have to start from the birth of clay courts.

In the 12th and 13th centuries, a game of hitting a ball with hands indoors became popular among French clergy to relieve their monotonous lives. Later, this game gradually became popular in Britain, France and other countries, and even had a special venue, rackets and the name "tennis", thus the prototype of modern tennis was born.

In 1873, the father of modern tennis, British Major Walter Clopton Wingfield, adjusted and improved the tennis playing method at that time, and proposed a new system close to the current tennis playing method. He also officially moved the playing field from indoors to outdoor lawns. Later, Wingfield also wrote a book called "Lawn Tennis", in which he introduced the rules of the sport in detail and promoted it.

Soon, the new "lawn tennis" became one of the most popular outdoor sports of the time. But soon after, a "flaw" of the sport also surfaced.

One day in the 1880s, William Renshaw, a British tennis player who had won the Wimbledon Championship many times, and his twin brother Ernest Renshaw were training in Cannes, France, when they discovered that the grass on the tennis courts was easily withered under the scorching sun. The grass courts that had been popular for many years were in conflict with the temperature conditions in southern France.

As a last resort, they had to find another way to "save" the court. Finally, the two brothers found some red clay powder made from discarded pottery pots in Vallauris (a village specializing in the production of handmade clay products) 6 kilometers away from Cannes, and decided to spread them on the court. In this way, the Renshaw brothers created the first red clay tennis court.

After more than 140 years of development, clay courts are now spread all over the world. The most famous of them is the tennis venue for this Olympics - the Roland Garros Stadium in France. The stadium was built in 1928 and its name comes from the French national hero Roland Garros.

Roland Garros Stadium has always been the venue for the French Open (French Open), one of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments. It is reasonable to hold the tennis competition in this Olympic Games.

Roland Garros Stadium | Source: Olympic Games official website

Interestingly, this is also the first time since 1992BarcelonaThis is the first time that an Olympic tennis event has been held on a clay court since the Olympics. The 2012 London Olympics tennis competition was held at Wimbledon, a typical grass court, while the last Tokyo Olympics tennis competition was held at Ariake Tennis Park, which is a more common hard court.

The left is a hard court, the right is a grass court | Source: U.S. Open official website,Wimbledon Tennis ChampionshipsOfficial Website

Clay courts rarely appear either in the Olympics or in our daily lives, so it's no wonder that some viewers are curious about this "red clay" court.

Red, green and blue on the tennis court

In addition to clay courts, tennis courts also have grass courts and hard courts.

Let’s first talk about today’s protagonist – the clay court.

The more accurate name for clay courts should be "soft courts". Compared with the first version of clay courts, today's clay courts have a more complex structure.

Take the clay court of Roland Garros Stadium as an example. It has five layers with a total thickness of 80 cm. The surface layer of "red soil" is usually crushed red brick soil powder with a thickness of only 1 to 2 mm.

Image source: French Open official website

Under the red soil, the second layer is crushed white limestone, about 6 to 7 cm thick, the third layer is 7 to 8 cm thick coal slag, and below that is at least 30 cm thick gravel, and the bottom is a drainage layer made of stones. Normally, each court of Roland Garros Stadium consumes at least 1.1 tons to 1.5 tons of red soil.

Because the surface is covered with red clay, athletes can use the "sliding step" to move around the court, quickly get into position and save energy during sudden stops and returns. There has always been a saying on the tennis court: "No sliding step, no red clay."

Slide | Source: French Open official website

Doesn't it look easy and cool? But in fact, this move requires athletes to have excellent running and mobility abilities. Most people are likely to fall flat on their backs when doing this move.

In addition, when a tennis ball lands on a clay court, it will have a greater friction with the ground, and the ball speed is relatively slow; and this type of game often has a lot of rounds, and a 5-game 3-win system is almost the norm, and a game lasting more than three hours is normal. In the end, the test is often the athlete's ability to fight a "tug-of-war", which requires the contestants to have superior skills and amazing perseverance to have the last laugh.

If there are any "disadvantages" of clay courts, it is probably that they are not very friendly to people with mysophobia. After all, you have to run around on the clay, and the probability of not getting dirt on your shoes or your body is too low.Wang Xinyu、Zhang ZhizhenThey won the silver medal in the mixed doubles tennis final. The two also competed on the clay court. You can see that their shoes looked like "dirty bags".

Image source: Weibo @CCTV News

Of course, it's not easy to just get your shoes dirty. After a men's doubles tennis match at this year's Olympics, Spanish athlete Rafael Nadal got a "clay skin".

Source: Associated Press

In an interview with the Associated Press, Greek tennis player Maria Sakkari even joked: "Playing on clay is much easier than washing socks."

In addition, the various marking lines on the clay court are on the surface of the soil. After a game, the solid lines are turned into dotted lines by the red clay that "runs everywhere", which can be considered a small "defect".

Image source: Video screenshot

So, what is it like playing on grass courts?

Grass courts today generally include natural grass courts and artificial grass courts. Natural grass courts are the "original configuration" of tennis, and are the oldest and most traditional courts. Their characteristics are that the friction between the tennis ball and the ground is small when it lands, and the ball bounces quickly, so it requires very high reaction, agility, and running speed of the players. Therefore, various offensive tactics are regarded as the magic weapon for winning on grass courts.

However, since the maintenance and upkeep of natural grass courts are relatively expensive, most natural grass courts have been gradually replaced by artificial grass courts since the 1980s. Currently, the Wimbledon Tennis Open is the only Grand Slam tournament held on natural grass courts.

Grassland | Source: Reference [3]

Speaking of hard courts, they are the most widely used tennis courts in daily life and are also the type of courts we are most likely to come into contact with in our lives.

Hard courts are generally paved with cement and asphalt with a plastic surface layer. This type of court is characterized by a flat surface, high hardness, and the ball bounces very regularly and rebounds very quickly.

Because this type of court is suitable for a variety of climate environments, has long-lasting color and excellent wear resistance, and is relatively simple to clean and maintain, it is also the most commonly used tennis court for competitions. For example, the U.S. Open and the Australian Open, two of the four Grand Slam tournaments, are both held on hard courts.

Hard court | Source: Reference [3]

It should be noted that the elasticity of hard courts is poorer than that of other courts. Beginners need to pay attention to strengthening self-protection when practicing on hard courts, especially the knees, ankles and other parts. If the running and moving methods are not correct, it is easy to cause injuries to some parts.

In general, whether it is a grass court, a hard court or a clay court, they are all classic venues in tennis tournaments. The requirements for athletes are different, and different athletes are good at different venues.

For example, Swiss athlete Federer, who won five consecutive Wimbledon titles between 2003 and 2007, was once called the "King of Grass", but on the clay court, he was defeated several times by the "King of Clay".NadalThe Polish general who was defeated by Zheng Qinwen beforeSwiatekWith four French Open titles at the age of 23, she is known as the "Queen of Clay".

Now, at this Paris Olympics, the 21-year-old Chinese girl Zheng Qinwen, who won the first Olympic women's singles gold medal for the Chinese tennis team and made history, has become a veritable "Queen of Clay".