Jim Courier: Wimbledon grass courts “awkward, uncomfortable”

The Channel Slam is one of the trickiest double headers in sports as tennis players face the daunting challenge of switching from Roland Garros clay to Wimbledon grass in under three weeks at the end of a long European tour.

“You really cannot play the same style of tennis, necessarily, as effectively,” said former world No. 1 Jim Courier on Tennis Channel Live Monday.

“You’ve got to be ready for the frustration—at least I did—of not being able to play comfortably. It’s an awkward, uncomfortable surface. You just have to hate it a little bit less than your opponent. At least, that was my philosophy.”

Courier won back-to-back Roland Garros titles in 1991 and 1992 but the four-time Grand Slam champion was unable to lift the Wimbledon trophy, reaching the final just once in 1993.

Roland Garros champion Carlos Alcaraz made a seamless transition to grass last year when he won the 2024 Channel Slam, and the Spaniard kicked off his Wimbledon title defense with a four-hour first-round marathon with Fabio Fognini.

“The mental reset is such a challenge when you put everything into winning a Grand Slam or doing the best you can, you kind of feel empty when it’s over, win or lose,” said Lindsay Davenport, who won Wimbledon in 1999. “You can barely take days off before you get back in the mode of getting your game back ready for the next major.

“There are big differences between playing on clay and playing on grass. You have to flatten out your groundstrokes and take balls earlier. You’ve got to try and look to move forward. So, there’s a huge adjustment there.”

Alcaraz ultimately adjusted in time to pass the Fognini test on Centre Court while Roland Garros women’s runner-up Aryna Sabalenka eased through her first round against Canadian qualifier Carson Branstine in straight sets. Women’s singles champion Coco Gauff plays her first round at Wimbledon on Tuesday against Dayana Yastremska.

Prakash Amritraj noted the European grind on U.S. players, who face a tough decision about whether to remain abroad after Roland Garros or hang on until after Wimbledon.

“You can’t have any kind of a reset here,” said Amritraj. “Some players can go home after Australia or have a little bit of a break after Wimbledon before starting up for the U.S. swing. Here, it makes it logistically very challenging. One of the things I ask all the American players is, ‘Are you going to go home?’ A lot of them end up staying all the way through, and that’s a whole different thing to wrap your head around at the start of a trip than it is for the other Slams.

“Maybe like the micro nap, you need the micro-trip to Ibiza?” joked Courier, referencing Alcaraz’s annual post-Roland Garros vacation.

“If it works for Carlos…” rejoined Amritraj.