Australian tennis has a bad case of clay fever, but there's a cure

(Getty/Simon Skafar)

September to December is the most dreaded period on the calendar for hay fever sufferers, with symptoms ranging from just a few sneezes to severe headaches.

From April to June, the season of clay fever hits Australian tennis like a ton of bricks.

The Madrid Open was yet another example of just how far behind Australia is in terms of the execution of clay court tennis.

All 10 Aussies failed to surpass the second round of the ATP/WTA 1000 main draw, with most faltering in the opening round.

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It's almost as if most of the Australian contingent are allergic to the red dirt, where symptoms such as fear, lack of appropriate footwork, lack of patience in the construction of points, and playing too flat are obvious for all to see. You wouldn't blame them for counting down the days until the commencement of grass court tennis.

As quite rightly pointed out by former Australian doubles world No.1, Paul McNamee, "results can vary from week to week" in the sport, but it can't be denied that a problem continues to linger.

Clay is, at the moment, Australia's least preferred surface by some margin, yet that doesn't mean that there isn't a cure for the country's clay fever.

There have been sporadic moments of promise over the years. Think back to Ash Barty winning the French Open seven years ago; Sam Stosur falling at the final hurdle in Paris; Pat Rafter's semi-final showing in 1997; the golden era of Rod Laver, Margaret Court, and Evonne Goolagong Cawley. Australia aren't renowned for clay tennis compared to Europe and South America. What Australian athletes are renowned for, however, is punching above their weight, even when the resources aren't accessible versus their competitors — the same as climate and geography barriers failing to stop the green and gold from its most successful Winter Olympics earlier this year.

So the question is: How can we go from sporadic moments to achieving consistent results year in year out?

Paul McNamee was another Aussie who understood the concepts of clay and fell in love with it.

That particular love didn't form straight away though.

"The first time I went to Roland-Garros, I lost a first round qualifier on Centre Court to a 41-year-old from Bolivia," McNamee told The First Serve. "I had won the juniors at the Australian Open and was the number one ranked junior.

"I left the court thinking, 'I have no idea what I'm doing', and I realised in that moment how little I knew about the sport. I had this sense of wonder one day if I'll ever get the feeling of knowing what I'm doing. "Then the next time I got to play on that court was many years later, it's called Philippe-Chatrier now. I played John McEnroe in the third round of the French Open, he was number two in the world, and I beat him in four sets. That was a big win, on the same court where I was humiliated as an 18-year-old.

"My feeling was this: I've been on the journey and I know what I'm doing. It was that sense of fulfilment of going on a journey and knowing I achieved what I set out to do. I could remember that kid who didn't know what he was doing. It's about the journey."

Since Barty's Roland-Garros triumph in 2019, only four Aussies both men and women combined have reached at least the third round of the Parisian Slam (Daria Kasatkina represented Russia between the 2020 and 2024 editions).

"In itself we struggle on clay, but it's symptomatic of a deeper issue, because clay is the essence of the sport. I mean, that's where chess is played, so you learn your skills," McNamee explained.

"Clay is a measure of the command of your skills in the sport, so that's why it's worrisome, because clay, in a sense, judges your level of mastery, and you cannot master tennis if you first don't master clay.

"Clay is not the end point. It's the start."

That start point is well before the pro tour life. The development on clay needs to begin at junior level before its too late.

Hosts of The First Serve's Junior Journey podcast, Beti Sekulovski and Michael Logarzo, know what they're talking about in the youth development space.

"Watching the kids here compete on clay, you can see how many of them haven't had a lot of exposure to the clay, but also don't train enough on the clay," said Sekulovski, who was a former player and coach of Jaimee Fourlis.

"You can see that there's been a lot of time spent on hard court. Panic sets in when the rally gets extended, so I think that all comes down to when you train on hard court, you get rewarded very quickly for a shot that you may not have been in position to hit, but you're rewarded through the court surface being so fast, whereas on clay, if you decide to go down the line too early, if you don't hit it well enough, you're quite often out of position and pay the price.

"So it teaches you about rules, tactical awareness, and it certainly shows up in your physicality in how well you move, how balanced you are, how well you read the game."

As well as making note that it's not the kids' fault, she also believes that inserting synthetic grass courts to help coaching businesses survive in winter is "impacting the overall development of patience, court craft, and willingness to fight for every point".

Logarzo, one of Australia's leading development coaches, with almost two decades experience working with juniors and tour professionals, echoes Sekulovski's views.

"Even in Melbourne there's been a reduction of clay courts at Melbourne Park, and two hard courts are being installed for the tournament," he said.

"Councils aren't investing in that surface. It's a lot easier to manage synthetic and hard court surfaces. It's also the maintenance of it at clubs to be able to maintain a good clay court, which is a greater expense.

"The ability to navigate through a point from defence, neutralising it, attacking, and then doing all those phases multiple times throughout a point and work your way through it; I don't think most of our players are doing that well enough at a younger age."

Of Course, from Tennis Australia's perspective, it makes total sense to prioritise hard courts because of the Australian Open. It's vitally important that the Aussies perform at a high level at their home Grand Slam.

That being said, less exposure to clay courts hinders players' ability to become versatile and adapt to different scenarios.

"If you don't love clay, you don't love tennis. It's pretty simple," said McNamee. "Hard court is an inferior part of the game where it's more linear, whereas clay, you're using more angles, more change in the variety of pace, shape and spin, patience and aggression, control and disguise, all of the mental attributes as well. So clay represents all of that.

"You can get by without spending the time on clay, but you're doing yourself a disservice as a player because you're not developing your skill sets.

"The fact of the matter is that if you can master clay, then you can transfer those skills to any court. But the reverse is not true. Being good on hard court doesn't mean you're going to be good on clay.

"And we're not the only country; it's the same in the US. The reality is that the sport is owned by the Europeans and South Americans for one reason: They grew up on clay.

"The courts we have in Australia are not European clay."

You will often see Aussie players ranked outside the top 100 compete in hard court Challenger and ITF events, because that's where they feel most comfortable.

The likes of Adam Walton (27) and Tristan Schoolkate (25) are at an age where ranking points and prize money are essential. They can't afford to experiment on the clay, and that's understandable.

The longer Australia waits to solve this clay court crisis, the longer the setback.

Let's just imagine that hundreds of clay courts magically appear across Australian tennis clubs tomorrow. Problem solved, right?

"Obviously you can put in clay courts, but if you don't have clay court masters who know how to coach on clay, it's like looking at a chess board but saying, 'I actually don't know how to play chess'. I can look at it, but I wouldn't know what to do," McNamee said.

"Our coaches aren't brought up on clay, so how are they supposed to know the secrets and the nuances? We have a massive weakness in coaching in Australia due to a lack of clay-court expertise among coaches, which then transfers to the players.

"You can count on one hand those coaches in Australia who understand clay, such as Richard Fromberg, because he was a good clay court player. I asked a kid from Richard's academy what the first principle of clay is, and he replied, 'controlled aggression'. I paused and asked, 'Where did you get that from? You couldn't have made that answer up', and the kid said, 'Richard Fromberg'."

There seems to be a gap in the coaching department regarding the fundamentals of how to actually play on clay, as Lagarzo emphasises that "it's about how we teach it".

But it's not that simple to lure coaches from overseas to help develop Australian juniors on clay. It's not free; it's a costly exercise.

McNamee joked that "if you know how to play on clay, you should be able to get into Australia with a Visa". That's how important it is.

"At the end of the day, we can only do our own bit, so for me, hoping to pass on the legacy of my clay knowledge, I spend a lot of time down at the Mornington Peninsula," McNamee shared.

"I was looking around for a little club with my wife to find a tennis home where I feel like I'd belong. I eventually found this beautiful club in Rosebud, which felt right. "We've converted all eight courts to cremonini clay, which is Italian clay. For $80,000, you can have eight courts of European clay, compared to one court costing around $75,000.

"I was able to do a masterclass there a couple of weeks ago, and it's a place where I can at least pass on my knowledge to a kid who dreams of stepping foot on Roland-Garros as I did on Centre Court to have the experience.

"It's incumbent upon us to do something about it. My late partner, Peter McNamara, was a terrific clay court player. He's not here anymore. We all have to do our bit."

Cremonini Clay specialises in converting en tout cas tennis courts into Cremonini Italian clay tennis courts at a fraction of the cost of a total court rebuild with over 50 years of experience. To find out more head to www.cremoniniclay.com.au