Court speed

Two court diagrams of Alcaraz's ad-side first serves on hard courts over the last 52 weeks. On all points (n=667) he goes 41% wide, 15% body and 44% T, winning 72 to 74% out wide and down the T. On break points (n=56) 71% go wide or body (48% wide, 23% body, 29% T) and he wins only 59% of the wide serves.

Alcaraz has a serve problem

Possibly a crazy thing to be writing about the current world No.1 and recent Australian Open champion. But margins are fine in tennis and his biggest rival has some hard court gifts that can make even small problems loom large.

March 2026Essay, 4 min read3 charts

Line chart of average men's rally length at Wimbledon, in shots per point, alongside relative air density from 2004 to 2025. Rally length moves between about 3.4 and 3.95 shots with no long-term rise and tracks air density, with a correlation of 0.57 overall and 0.74 for year-to-year changes.

Is Wimbledon getting slower?

People love to say Wimbledon keeps getting slower despite consistent grass length (8mm) since 1995, seed type (ryegrass) since 2001, ball pressure since 1995

February 2026