Petition to AELTC and LTA to increase Championships Court Speed

To:  The All England Tennis and Croquet Club (AELTC) and The Lawn Tennis Association (LTA).

This is a petition from tennis fans for the AELTC/LTA to increase the speed of the grass courts used at the 2009 Wimbledon Championships to a greater level than that used in 2008.

The signatories of this petition disapprove of the significant reduction in court speed that has gradually occurred at the Championships over the past five or so years.

This reduction has primarily had two negative effects. It has firstly led to a decrease in the amount of play that is traditionally associated with the Championships; serve-volleying and net-attacking play is now seen only rarely. Interrelated with this, the style of tennis played at Wimbledon has been brought into greater uniformity with the other grand slams. The signatories of this petition believe that this is pernicious to the sport of a whole, for it is largely the differences between the grand slams that constitute their greatest strength.

There has been much speculation in the media and among tennis fans that the reduction in court speed is to reduce the success of big servers on grass and thus to improve the quality of play. The signatories to an extent sympathise with this objective. However, they hereby argue that the reduction has been excessive and needs to an extent be reversed for the reasons stated above.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

The Petition to AELTC and LTA to increase Championships Court Speed Petition to The All England Tennis and Croquet Club (AELTC) and The Lawn Tennis Association (LTA). was created by and written by Lisa Smithson (fastgrass101@hotmail.com).  This petition is hosted here at www.PetitionOnline.com as a public service. There is no endorsement of this petition, express or implied, by Artifice, Inc. or our sponsors. For technical support please use our simple Petition Help form.