Patrick Mouratoglou academy in Costa Azzurra (France) with Red Plus tennis courts

The game of tennis traditionally played on red clay courts, those for a ‘slower’ and more restful game, underwent a significant innovation when, about twenty years ago, the Red Plus system was invented, patented and proposed.

Red Plus is recognized as a red clay court, of which it retains all the performance characteristics, adding considerable advantages thanks to the support of a synthetic mat.

The backing is filled with top-quality clay, recreating the playing characteristics of traditional red clay.

The advantages of Red Plus

The advantages of this system are obvious: the soil remains trapped in the synthetic fibres and does not get blown away in the wind; in the event of rain, or even after normal wetting, the field becomes rapidly practicable.

At the end of the season, it is not necessary to reload the whole field, but a slight reloading is sufficient.

The advantages begin with the construction of the court: Red Plus can in fact be installed on any subfloor, new or existing, reflecting requirements such as speed of construction and versatility during construction, resulting in lower costs.

It is important to emphasise that tennis courts with Red Plus technology do not require any downtime following their construction, and are therefore immediately usable. Any tennis court can be easily converted to Red Plus.

Wheelchair tennis

If the way of playing and sliding are in every way similar to those on traditional courts, a further particular advantage is offered by the game for athletes in wheelchairs (wheelchair tennis), in which accelerations and turns tend to dig up a lot of earth. If the earth is held back by the synthetic fibres, the wheels of the wheelchair do not sink in as they would on a conventional court, and the game is much less tiring.

Proof of this is the choice made by the LTA (Lawn Tennis Association) in Great Britain, which proposes a vision of ‘open tennis’, relevant, accessible, welcoming and fun’. A tennis that can be played by everyone, regardless of ability, in all communities and environments.

In pursuit of these aims, the LTA has a state-of-the-art centre at the National Tennis Centre (NTC) in Roehampton, close to the All England Club in Wimbledon, equipped with 22 tennis courts in both grass, acrylic and clay.

With the aim of providing its tennis players – also wheelchair players – with surfaces that allow for the best possible performance, the LTA identified Red Plus as a viable solution, introducing a court with the Red Plus system last year.

The ITF certification of Red Plus

The ITF Court Pace classification programme was developed to help tennis court buyers select the most suitable surface for their needs.

Surfaces can be classified into one of five categories: slow, medium-slow, medium, medium-fast and fast. End users can select a surface according to its playing speed.

Court Pace is determined by shooting a ball on the surface and recording its speed before and after bouncing. Rough surfaces, which generate more friction between the ball and the court, reduce the horizontal speed of the ball, thus establishing that a court is slower. In addition, surfaces that have a higher bounce induce slower play as players have more time to reach the ball. ITF Court Pace Rating uses both of these factors to determine the speed or slowness of a surface.

A product included in the list of ITF rated surfaces is included exclusively on the basis of Court Pace and is rated for 3 years.

Red Plus, based on testing, is ITF 1- SLOW certified, so it is a surface for ‘slow’ play, similar to traditional clay courts; it is also ITF Two Stars certified.

Initially diffused in the Swiss market, today the Red Plus system can be found in prestigious international centres such as Patrick Mouratoglou’s tennis academies in the French Riviera and Malaysia, as well as in Canada, Chile and an increasing number of tennis clubs in Italy and other European countries.

News by RedPlus s.d. Swiss S.A.