By Richard Pagliaro | @Tennis_Now | Wednesday, August 14, 2024
Photo credit: Brad Penner/US Open/USTA 

Fresh lines rather than fast lanes await players at this month’s US Open.

The US Open begins on Monday, August 26th, but players will start practicing at the USTA-Billie Jean King National Tennis Center starting this weekend and into US Open Fan week next week.

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Players are already using the US Open ball at this week’s Cincinnati Open so adapting to the surface speed in New York will be one of the biggest adjustments ahead of the season’s final major.

The 2024 US Open surface speed is "medium-fast", US Open Tournament Director and Chief Executive, Professional Tennis Stacey Allaster told Tennis Now today.

Tennis fans know the US Open resurfaces all of its courts each summer before the Flushing Meadows.

Have you ever wondered how the US Open decides on optimum surface speed for the most famous public hard courts in the country?

We put that question to the US Open Tournament Director during today’s USTA Zoom call with the media to promote the 2024 US Open, which opens Fan Week this Sunday night.

“We aim for the Court Pace Rating to be medium-fast,” Stacey Allaster told Tennis Now on today’s Zoom call. “Medium-fast, according to the ITF, is 41 to 44 [on the CPR scale]. “All 17 courts have been surfaced and the average CPR right now is 42.

"That’s where we like it to be at the start of the tournament so that as we ease into it, it gets closer to the [aim].”



Allaster said several factors—including player feedback and court speed that offers a balance of offense and defense—play parts in setting the surface speed each year.

“We take feedback from the players from player development,” Allaster told Tennis Now. “We know that that speed of court gives us that right balance for the style of play that’s successful.

"So that’s what goes into that decision and where we sit today as we wait for the first balls to be hit.”