Originally Posted by
Jeff_Black
Certainly!
The roof aspect of things is quite simple. An indoor surface or effectively an outdoor surface with a closed roof basically nullifies any outdoor aspects such as wind, weather, air density, the sun (heat) and sometimes until it is deemed too dangerous, rain. The indoor conditions allow for faster play in a tennis court which favour the players with aggressive games who like to finish off games quickly.
For example the game the other day between Raonic and Bautista (like most Spaniard players who don't mind hitting the ball around and rallying) with an open roof and allowing for conditions allow him to dictate play and hang at the baseline to construct points. When the points end quicker, they favour Raonic who likes to come in to the net and volley and hit his forehand winners. Thus most people who watched the game noted that it changed in Raonic's favour when the roof closed, to a lesser extent similarly in the Wimbledon final to Federer's extent.
I think in some cases it comes down to players being able to take advantage of the conditions. For example when Murray and Djokovic play their Australian open finals in the cooler weather when it is slower it favours Djokovic. It's a crazy thing to say because both players have similar games but alternatively Djokovic basically has Murray on a string like he is a puppet because he is allowed to do whatever he wants being able to construct his points whereas Murray is happy to wait for Djokovic to make errors or have a lapse in concentration.
When Djokovic shrinks the court in those finals Murray is basically a dead man because Djokovic knows where he is going to hit it or he can force Murray to hit a bad shot from it.
If it is faster such as Wimbledon is favours Murray because Djokovic has less time firstly react to both Murray's first and second serves and secondly construct points and do whatever he wants in rallies because the points are shorter and on grass Murray is able to work the angles like he did in the 2013 final to force an error.
Or the us open final where it was windy AF, and you simply can't make the same shots you do on a non windy day because it will result in more errors.
IMO Murray shouldn't let slower conditions be an advantage to or allow Djokovic to dictate play but because he plays like such a retard in those instances it's why he's lost five finals against him there.
In opposite an outdoor court allows all the weather conditions to affect the play.
In some cases the wind at times affects the ball toss which can make it difficult for rhythm. Think to the 2012 US open where there was some ridiculous wind and from what I've seen to an extent the design of Arthur Ashe Stadium as more open compared to say Rod Laver Area or the Centre Court of Wimbledon which allows for more weather factors because of its 'openness' compared to RLA or Wimbledons centre court which are more closed and easier to build a roof on which they have now.
Rain will normally not affect the court long term that much because the umpires will suspend play and catch on pretty quickly, sometimes you get the odd point where a player loses their footing because of the moisture on the ground causing some sliding but usually safety precautions take place.
On clay though it can be a bit different because a bit rain as we've seen in the past won't affect play. The umpire will allow play because it's not hardcourts and players slide, Unless it is heavy enough to deem dangerous and stop play.
Think the French Open.
Think Nadal and Djokovic's 2012 French open final when rain affected the outcome of the match and Djokovic was able to get back into it. And I'll explain why...
Nadal plays a game which basically states straight up "I am better than anyone at hitting balls into positions where you can't attack me without taking huge risks, and I can do it longer than anyone". Watch the angle that his balls bounce as they cross the baseline. He gets them jumping up near vertical. So a normal player (on clay) has to take huge risks because they know they can't compete with his game. Players that don't have an alternate game (Ferrer) just get chopped. So for Nadal this will work against, effectively, nearly everyone bar Novak.
When the rain came in on that day during the game, Novak completely changed his shot selection (helped a little by the conditions) to the sort of game he plays on hard court. Effectively he's trying to open the court up on nearly every shot even if it means being exposed
The reason why it's so effective is because the ball is bouncing lower now so when Nadal tries to take advantage and 'rip' the ball away the spin just doesn't have the same effect. So Novak feels safer hitting the ball to open up the court because he knows he can't be hurt.
With a bit of momentum Novak was able to hit the ball better. But that's not the big reason there is a difference. He's getting his body behind the ball so that he can use the ground reactive force in his legs to get the extra power. And he knows he can do it because Nadal can't take him out of court as much, so he's willing to do the extra running
Djokovic usually wants to take those risks because it opens the court up and he's fast enough to get to Nadal's response. On a dry clay court though Djokovic's flat attacking balls get held up and then the spin from Nadal just puts the ball way too far out of court for it to be a winning strategy (most of the time).
As the court gets wet, Djokovic's flat attacking shots still get held up, but Nadal's response isn't as devastating because a wet ball doesn't bounce the same. So now Djokovic is willing to take the risk because he knows he can get back across the court and in doing so he's opened up the whole court for both players which is where he is significantly better than Nadal.
And Nadal knows it too. You could see how pissed off he is. It's exactly the same as the Wimbledon final the year before. And it's why the media made a big deal about him wanting to suspend play. Effectively Novak uses aggressive movement, aggressive shot selection. And he's got enough speed and endurance to do it for long periods of time. Nadal knows and he hates it heh.
Now let's look at the last factor, air conditions (humidity/density)
And again I will quote an example where this happens, the us open 2013 final...
The temperature cooled to below 20C over the next couple of hours, before the match started which suited Nadal much more. Relative humidity got close to 80%, this slowed the balls down and made it harder for Novak to hit winners.
High relative humidity greatly affects ball speed, which played against Novak more. Nadal got a lot of balls back in this match, due to the ball 'hang time'.
As a result, due to the high relative humidity slowing the ball down, Novak just couldn't hit enough winners through the thicker air which forced a lot of UEs.
Obviously it's impossible to put the pieces with every player, because each player is different with their styles on play, it's why, for example, some players suck on clay and others don't regardless of the conditions. The best way to get a gauge of it is watching, watching and more watching of game tape!
There are sites out there that explain the formulas behind the reasoning but this is more of a brief and unnecessarily poorly explained shortened version covering the very basics ��
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, although Roger did win the match in 5 sets.
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