Those years of green clay at the US Open

The lucky ones with US Open Tennis tickets in 1975 perhaps they had to rub their eyes. Hey, wait… what the hell is that. That, yes, the surface. Look, look, if it’s green. Green. Okay, cool green, because green is the grass, and the US Open was traditionally played on grass. But now it doesn’t look like grass. No, rather… yes, clay, brick dust, what the French have at Roland Garros. How strange, what a fantasy is this.

We are talking about the HarTru.

Let’s see, in a few words… green clay. That sounds very dirty, that green clay, it sounds like slime surrounding the Usher house, it sounds like mangroves where your feet are eaten by alligators and alligator turtles. But no, it is a very clean thing and without apparent risk. Let’s say brick dust, okay, but a particular brick, a basalt brick fresh from some mines in Virginia, pure American Way of Life. so they seem goodbut they are clay courts.

Be careful, neither clay like the clay you think. No. The HarTru (HarTru is the name of the company that, since between the wars, has been dedicated to creating this type of issue… and has become synonymous with the result… a bit like donuts or “krispis” for breakfast) is considerably more faster than the land of Paris, or Rome, or that we have in Spanish tournaments, which looks like beach tennis, sometimes. It has other advantages, huh? It is cheap, it resists moisture well, it slips less. Come on, what a good solution for chubby clubs in their forties and the like. What has been the majority, wow, that abs like Carlos Alcaraz not everyone has.

Yankee origin, Yankee development. The HarTru appeared, above all, in the United States, and had a boom in the 1970s. If he even reached the Grand Slam, yes, yes, as you hear it. Here, here I wanted to get to the Grand Slam. The last three years that the US Open has been held in Forest Hills, before moving to that Flushing Meadows where it continues today. And that, what a change… from grass to green clay. Or detox shake color clay, how bad are you, detox shakes. A very rare thing. That 1975 tournament was quite spectacular, don’t think about it. He even had one of those games that everyone puts among the five or ten greatest ever played. At least there.

Semifinal. Guillermo Villas contra Manuel Orantes. An Argentine and a Spanish. Let’s see, it would be green, but it was still brick dust, so… it even seems logical to us. Vilas that has it on track. very on track Earned from everything earnable. Two sets to one, five zero in the fourth. Match ball. Ok, perfect, procedure. Granted that he was half injured, and that he could run just enough, but, hey, there’s time until the end, and the massages are miraculous. So that… tie yourself up. Match ball, balloon from Orantes, Vilas preparing to hit the classic volley, perfect finish, host on the court, everyone applauds, what a cool epilogue. It happens not. It happens what happens It happens that it fails. Ball out. Out. Not. To hell. I imagine they know how the matter ends. Orantes wins the game, Orantes wins the set, Orantes wins the match, Guillermo Vilas looks like a ball boy. Ah, Orantes also won the final. Against Jimmy Connorsnothing less.

(The following year Connors did win, against Björn Borg. And, two later, the revenge of Guillermo Vilas arrived, who imposed himself on Connors. Come on, the one from Illinois played the three finals that were played on green clay. So that later some wonder if he had not been worth it for Roland Garros. Ah, Jimmy Connors also has another record that, I suspect, will be impossible for anyone to ever match…he lifted the US Open trophy on three different surfaces…grass, green clay and concrete).

Because, spoiler, in 1978 the area changed again. Now we move on to a cosuca called DecoTurf. Come on, cement. We’re going too fast. Come on, the ball is devilish. Absolute modification, those who dominated before become troupes (except the good-good ones… the good-good ones perform at any lao, because the good-good ones are incredible, and as if you put a ping-pong paddle on them). Modification except in the aesthetics, because that track was painted green, tradition obliges, and green falls phenomenally in summer, it is a color that hits a lot. It lasted like this until 2005, when they threw a blue cape on top. The TV, which complained, because the green reflects a lot of lights and the ball looked regular. And against the TV well… nothing to do, they are plenipotentiaries. Be careful, that DecoTurf is not even what is played now, because in 2020 it was changed to something that Laykold says, which, they say, is even faster and has fewer variations between days (come on, the ball runs the same if it’s cold or if you’re toasting).

You know what? In the end everything counts. You look at yourself with palmares and, hey… it’s that the big ones appear here and there, no matter how much we have grass, reinforced concrete or brick fresh from that abandoned warehouse next to their barriuco, yes, yes, that one, where the kids go to throw the first cigarettes. There is a very clear example… Jimmy Connors. They sure remember it. The same Jimmy Connors from “Jimmy Connors won the tournament on three surfaces.” Well, that Jimmy Connors, already on cement, reached the semifinals in 1991. He was thirty-nine years old (which is quite a lot), he had been off the circuit for a few seasons due to a wrist injury, he entered as a guest, his ranking gave him to compete in the Grand Prix by Ramon Garcia. And, look… semis. Winning matches to five sets and everything. Semis. Courier puts it on, who loses the final with Stefan Edberg.

And it is that the big names… the really big names, always end up appearing to us. Even if it’s on green clay.