Andy Roddick recently said, "The way you construct points is completely different on clay."

My ego objected faster than your old ex at the wedding. It’s the same size court! Same balls! Same rackets! You're being dramatic. And compared to you, Mr. Former No. 1 in the World/Grand Slam Champion, I know a lot more — I'm almost an 11 UTR!

Then I remembered I've played on green American clay fewer than ten times and sat tf down.

So here’s what I've actually noticed watching the clay season kick off:

On hard courts, players tend to attack through the middle and go wide when the opportunity opens up. On clay, there's one shot that skips the pleasantries and does almost everything at once: the inside-out short angle forehand.

Here's what makes it so effective: it punishes your opponent twice with one swing. First, it drags them out of position — sometimes four or five feet beyond the singles sideline. Second, the ball bounces up into their backhand, where on clay the extra kick launches it above a comfortable strike zone.

It really doesn’t end well for Tsitsipas (above), who’s at an even greater disadvantage since he’s got a one-hander.

And the fun part is what comes next. You've got options. Rip the next ball back to the open deuce side and make them sprint the full width of the court. Or go right back behind them on the ad side, keeping them pinned in the corner where they can't generate anything dangerous. Either way, you're the one dictating the rally.

I would love to hire an intern to restring my racket pull the numbers, but upon watching: players seem to go wide more on clay than on hard — especially kick serves on the ad side as first serves.

It makes total sense. The whole idea of clay is to get your opponent as far out of the frame as humanly possible. A wide kick serve to the ad side does the job beautifully: the ball jumps out and away, drags your opponent into the next city over, and now you've got an entire 1,053 sq ft. apartment to hit into safely.

Wide serve. Wide open pastures.

On hard courts, most balls arrive at a comfortable hitting height. On clay, topspin kicks up (duh). A high ball — especially to the backhand side — is a nightmare for basically everyone except Djokovic and anyone over 6’ 4”.

But here's the part that gets overlooked: height doesn't just make the shot harder to hit. It also buys the hitter more time to recover. While the ball is doing its little bounce-and-rise journey, the person who just hit it is already back in position. Nadal was psychotically good at this — he could launch a shoulder-high ball from six feet behind the baseline and somehow be back in the center of the court by the time you made contact with your reply.

So going high on clay does two things at once: makes your opponent's next shot harder, and gives you time to reset. Same principle as the inside-out forehand. The best clay court shots punish in multiple directions simultaneously.

In conclusion (as my 5th grade writing teacher always told me to say): Roddick was right. It really is completely different, dawg.

Only one player in ATP history has won both the French Open and Wimbledon in three consecutive years. Who was it?

A. Rafael Nadal

B. Bjorn Borg

C. Novak Djokovic

D. Jimmy Connors

Find out at the bottom!

Bonus - which WTA player did it four times? Note: they were not consecutive years.

One thing I find crazy — Djokovic only played 13 tournaments last year, but is still No. 4 in the world ahead of players playing full schedules. What’s even crazier is that he lost in the first round in 4 of those 13. His ability to turn it on when it matters is just Linsanity.

For comparison, here’s how many tournaments his colleagues played in 2025:

*Left out Sinner since he was banned for 3 months

For all my fellow gear-nerds with reading glasses nearby, check this out! It’s a list of players from the Houston ATP 250 event, their string types and tension!

Some of the best tennis content I found on the internet this week…

🏋 A hot take on whether weight lifting should be a part of a tennis player’s regimen

👁 Is your eye for pro player technique better than mine? I got this one on the first forehand. Majorly impressed if you got it from the slice.

💹 Finance bros and bro-ettes, this ones for you. Here’s a super satisfying video of how ATP Pension plans work.

B. Bjorn Borg

Borg not only cemented himself as an all-time great between 1978-1980, he also permanently gave society the trademark look for tennis player halloween costumes.

Bonus - it could only be Steffi Graf!