Court Speed Index — Which Tennis Courts Play Fast

Does it work?

Surface is never used in the calculation. Grouping the finished index by surface afterwards is therefore a test, not a result — and it comes out in the order every player would give you.

+0.86Grass · 16

+0.61Hard · 69

−0.86Clay · 48

The index, fastest first

Percentage points of ace rate above or below what these same players manage elsewhere. Tour-level events of the last three years with at least 80 player-matches.

#	Tournament	Surface	Index	vs. own rate	Sample
1	Montpellier	Hard	+2.98	+36%	180
2	Basel	Hard	+2.85	+32%	104
3	Halle	Grass	+2.54	+28%	109
4	Chengdu	Hard	+2.51	+29%	100
5	Hangzhou	Hard	+2.42	+31%	100
6	Dallas	Hard	+2.13	+25%	187
7	Stuttgart	Grass	+2.08	+30%	347
8	Almaty	Hard	+1.90	+25%	100
9	Queen's Club	Grass	+1.74	+25%	195
10	Monterrey	Hard	+1.73	+42%	100
11	Marseille	Hard	+1.71	+19%	100
12	Metz	Hard	+1.67	+22%	103
13	Brisbane	Hard	+1.65	+27%	519
14	Guangzhou	Hard	+1.63	+44%	128
15	Vienna	Hard	+1.50	+19%	108
16	Angers 125	Hard	+1.45	+40%	118
17	Washington	Hard	+1.42	+22%	262
18	Delray Beach	Hard	+1.32	+16%	175
19	Hong Kong	Hard	+1.30	+23%	356
20	Cincinnati	Hard	+1.30	+21%	601
21	Singapore	Hard	+1.28	+34%	103
22	WTA Nottingham (Grass)	Grass	+1.26	+38%	82
23	Tampico 125	Hard	+1.20	+40%	152
24	Dubai	Hard	+1.18	+19%	548
25	Canberra 125	Hard	+1.15	+38%	322
26	Winston-Salem	Hard	+1.12	+14%	124
27	Birmingham	Grass	+1.07	+28%	128
28	Shanghai Masters	Hard	+1.01	+12%	329
29	Limoges 125	Hard	+0.96	+29%	124
30	ATP 500 Washington (Hard)	Hard	+0.93	+14%	140
31	WTA 1000 Cincinnati (Hard)	Hard	+0.93	+16%	309
32	Wimbledon	Grass	+0.92	+16%	1,401
33	Wimbledon (Grass)	Grass	+0.88	+14%	462
34	Miami	Hard	+0.86	+14%	1,182
35	Guadalajara	Hard	+0.82	+24%	243
36	Mallorca	Grass	+0.71	+14%	172
37	ATP Hertogenbosch	Grass	+0.68	+11%	155
38	Auckland	Hard	+0.68	+13%	405
39	Chennai	Hard	+0.65	+19%	91
40	Linz	Hard	+0.61	+16%	195
41	WTA London	Grass	+0.60	+14%	88
42	Australian Open	Hard	+0.57	+10%	2,352
43	Ningbo	Hard	+0.53	+15%	127
44	Osaka	Hard	+0.49	+13%	131
45	s Hertogenbosch	Grass	+0.48	+8%	225
46	Midland 125	Hard	+0.42	+12%	161
47	Berlin	Grass	+0.42	+10%	128
48	Adelaide	Hard	+0.41	+6%	275
49	Canada Masters	Hard	+0.37	+4%	254
50	Newport	Grass	+0.36	+8%	84
51	Suzhou 125	Hard	+0.36	+11%	84
52	Tokyo	Hard	+0.35	+6%	225
53	Gstaad	Clay	+0.32	+4%	103
54	Ostrava	Hard	+0.32	+10%	83
55	Rovereto 125	Hard	+0.31	+12%	81
56	Sao Paulo	Hard	+0.27	+12%	82
57	Wuhan	Hard	+0.24	+6%	205
58	Cleveland	Hard	+0.16	+4%	116
59	Mumbai 125	Hard	+0.16	+5%	252
60	Ilkley 125	Grass	+0.16	+4%	94
61	Nottingham	Grass	+0.16	+4%	134
62	Cluj-Napoca	Hard	+0.15	+5%	217
63	Oeiras 125 Indoor 1	Hard	+0.10	+4%	162
64	Us Open	Hard	+0.05	+1%	1,393
65	Jiujiang	Hard	+0.03	+1%	104
66	Acapulco	Hard	−0.02	−0%	184
67	Hobart	Hard	−0.05	−2%	225
68	Kitzbuhel	Clay	−0.08	−1%	97
69	WTA Toronto (Hard)	Hard	−0.10	−2%	213
70	Prague	Hard	−0.10	−3%	134
71	Contrexeville 125	Clay	−0.11	−4%	164
72	Huzhou 125	Clay	−0.13	−6%	163
73	WTA 1000 Montreal	Hard	−0.14	−3%	187
74	Paris 125	Hard	−0.18	−3%	312
75	Puerto Vallarta 125	Hard	−0.18	−5%	118
76	Warsaw 125	Hard	−0.18	−6%	120
77	Cali 125	Clay	−0.19	−10%	156
78	Bastad	Clay	−0.20	−5%	214
79	Palermo	Clay	−0.20	−8%	117
80	Valencia 125	Clay	−0.22	−10%	160
81	San Sebastian 125	Clay	−0.22	−10%	80
82	Iasi	Clay	−0.26	−11%	129
83	Austin	Hard	−0.27	−8%	349
84	Rouen	Clay	−0.29	−8%	233
85	Beijing	Hard	−0.31	−6%	436
86	Eastbourne	Grass	−0.34	−6%	225
87	Stockholm	Hard	−0.34	−4%	95
88	Bogota	Clay	−0.34	−14%	220
89	Seoul	Hard	−0.34	−9%	118
90	Ljubljana 125	Clay	−0.35	−14%	120
91	Rio de Janeiro	Clay	−0.39	−8%	250
92	Marrakech	Clay	−0.39	−6%	172
93	Oeiras 125	Clay	−0.40	−14%	243
94	Tolentino 125	Clay	−0.40	−21%	80
95	Colina 125	Clay	−0.41	−21%	122
96	Santiago	Clay	−0.41	−7%	175
97	Cosenza 125	Clay	−0.41	−17%	83
98	Merida	Hard	−0.42	−15%	200
99	Jinan 125	Hard	−0.47	−15%	82
100	Charleston	Clay	−0.48	−14%	433
101	Changsha 125	Clay	−0.49	−19%	83
102	Rotterdam	Hard	−0.51	−6%	194
103	Doha	Hard	−0.59	−10%	565
104	Abu Dhabi	Hard	−0.63	−16%	199
105	Indian Wells	Hard	−0.67	−11%	1,186
106	Rabat	Clay	−0.68	−26%	233
107	Parma 125	Clay	−0.70	−23%	120
108	Buenos Aires	Clay	−0.74	−16%	237
109	Strasbourg	Clay	−0.77	−20%	222
110	Bari 125	Clay	−0.77	−27%	114
111	Madrid	Clay	−0.80	−14%	1,268
112	Montreux 125	Clay	−0.83	−32%	156
113	Antalya 125	Clay	−0.84	−36%	483
114	Dubrovnik 125	Clay	−0.86	−36%	80
115	Saint Malo 125	Clay	−0.88	−27%	250
116	Florianopolis 125	Clay	−0.96	−48%	121
117	ATP Montreal (Hard)	Hard	−0.99	−12%	216
118	Vic 125	Clay	−1.02	−35%	124
119	WTA Hamburg (Clay)	Clay	−1.04	−37%	86
120	ATP French Open	Clay	−1.19	−24%	194
121	La Bisbal d'Emporda 125	Clay	−1.24	−43%	121
122	Makarska 125	Clay	−1.41	−50%	118
123	Umag	Clay	−1.47	−26%	99
124	Houston	Clay	−1.48	−20%	170
125	Roland Garros	Clay	−1.54	−28%	2,103
126	Los Cabos	Hard	−1.75	−22%	95
127	Hamburg	Clay	−1.76	−31%	410
128	Geneva	Clay	−1.85	−23%	223
129	Rome	Clay	−1.86	−33%	1,174
130	Bucharest	Clay	−1.92	−41%	260
131	Munich	Clay	−2.13	−28%	192
132	Barcelona	Clay	−2.72	−38%	226
133	Monte Carlo Masters	Clay	−3.55	−45%	338

How this is measured

Each player against themselves. Ranking venues by raw aces per match would rank the draw, not the court: one big server in the field and the venue looks quick. Instead every observation is one player’s ace rate at this event minus their own rate everywhere else, and the index is the average of those differences.
Aces are a proxy, not the whole story. Court speed is bounce height, ball type, altitude and roof as well as surface. Aces capture how much of the serve survives the court, which is most of what “fast” means in practice — but a low index means “not many free points”, not “slow” in every sense.
Three years, tour level only. Serve statistics only exist in this database from 2024. Challenger and ITF events are excluded: their player pools are too unstable for a player’s own baseline to mean anything.
One venue, one row. The same event reaches us under several names — “Masters 1000 Monte-Carlo” and “Monte Carlo Masters” are one tournament — and they are merged before counting. The surface shown is whichever label most of the event’s matches carry.
This is not a betting signal. No part of our prediction engine reads this index. It is published because it is a true and rarely-published fact about the tour, not because we have shown it beats a price.

Does it work?

Surface is never used in the calculation. Grouping the finished index by surface afterwards is therefore a test, not a result — and it comes out in the order every player would give you.

+0.86Grass · 16

+0.61Hard · 69

−0.86Clay · 48

The index, fastest first

Percentage points of ace rate above or below what these same players manage elsewhere. Tour-level events of the last three years with at least 80 player-matches.

#	Tournament	Surface	Index	vs. own rate	Sample
1	Montpellier	Hard	+2.98	+36%	180
2	Basel	Hard	+2.85	+32%	104
3	Halle	Grass	+2.54	+28%	109
4	Chengdu	Hard	+2.51	+29%	100
5	Hangzhou	Hard	+2.42	+31%	100
6	Dallas	Hard	+2.13	+25%	187
7	Stuttgart	Grass	+2.08	+30%	347
8	Almaty	Hard	+1.90	+25%	100
9	Queen's Club	Grass	+1.74	+25%	195
10	Monterrey	Hard	+1.73	+42%	100
11	Marseille	Hard	+1.71	+19%	100
12	Metz	Hard	+1.67	+22%	103
13	Brisbane	Hard	+1.65	+27%	519
14	Guangzhou	Hard	+1.63	+44%	128
15	Vienna	Hard	+1.50	+19%	108
16	Angers 125	Hard	+1.45	+40%	118
17	Washington	Hard	+1.42	+22%	262
18	Delray Beach	Hard	+1.32	+16%	175
19	Hong Kong	Hard	+1.30	+23%	356
20	Cincinnati	Hard	+1.30	+21%	601
21	Singapore	Hard	+1.28	+34%	103
22	WTA Nottingham (Grass)	Grass	+1.26	+38%	82
23	Tampico 125	Hard	+1.20	+40%	152
24	Dubai	Hard	+1.18	+19%	548
25	Canberra 125	Hard	+1.15	+38%	322
26	Winston-Salem	Hard	+1.12	+14%	124
27	Birmingham	Grass	+1.07	+28%	128
28	Shanghai Masters	Hard	+1.01	+12%	329
29	Limoges 125	Hard	+0.96	+29%	124
30	ATP 500 Washington (Hard)	Hard	+0.93	+14%	140
31	WTA 1000 Cincinnati (Hard)	Hard	+0.93	+16%	309
32	Wimbledon	Grass	+0.92	+16%	1,401
33	Wimbledon (Grass)	Grass	+0.88	+14%	462
34	Miami	Hard	+0.86	+14%	1,182
35	Guadalajara	Hard	+0.82	+24%	243
36	Mallorca	Grass	+0.71	+14%	172
37	ATP Hertogenbosch	Grass	+0.68	+11%	155
38	Auckland	Hard	+0.68	+13%	405
39	Chennai	Hard	+0.65	+19%	91
40	Linz	Hard	+0.61	+16%	195
41	WTA London	Grass	+0.60	+14%	88
42	Australian Open	Hard	+0.57	+10%	2,352
43	Ningbo	Hard	+0.53	+15%	127
44	Osaka	Hard	+0.49	+13%	131
45	s Hertogenbosch	Grass	+0.48	+8%	225
46	Midland 125	Hard	+0.42	+12%	161
47	Berlin	Grass	+0.42	+10%	128
48	Adelaide	Hard	+0.41	+6%	275
49	Canada Masters	Hard	+0.37	+4%	254
50	Newport	Grass	+0.36	+8%	84
51	Suzhou 125	Hard	+0.36	+11%	84
52	Tokyo	Hard	+0.35	+6%	225
53	Gstaad	Clay	+0.32	+4%	103
54	Ostrava	Hard	+0.32	+10%	83
55	Rovereto 125	Hard	+0.31	+12%	81
56	Sao Paulo	Hard	+0.27	+12%	82
57	Wuhan	Hard	+0.24	+6%	205
58	Cleveland	Hard	+0.16	+4%	116
59	Mumbai 125	Hard	+0.16	+5%	252
60	Ilkley 125	Grass	+0.16	+4%	94
61	Nottingham	Grass	+0.16	+4%	134
62	Cluj-Napoca	Hard	+0.15	+5%	217
63	Oeiras 125 Indoor 1	Hard	+0.10	+4%	162
64	Us Open	Hard	+0.05	+1%	1,393
65	Jiujiang	Hard	+0.03	+1%	104
66	Acapulco	Hard	−0.02	−0%	184
67	Hobart	Hard	−0.05	−2%	225
68	Kitzbuhel	Clay	−0.08	−1%	97
69	WTA Toronto (Hard)	Hard	−0.10	−2%	213
70	Prague	Hard	−0.10	−3%	134
71	Contrexeville 125	Clay	−0.11	−4%	164
72	Huzhou 125	Clay	−0.13	−6%	163
73	WTA 1000 Montreal	Hard	−0.14	−3%	187
74	Paris 125	Hard	−0.18	−3%	312
75	Puerto Vallarta 125	Hard	−0.18	−5%	118
76	Warsaw 125	Hard	−0.18	−6%	120
77	Cali 125	Clay	−0.19	−10%	156
78	Bastad	Clay	−0.20	−5%	214
79	Palermo	Clay	−0.20	−8%	117
80	Valencia 125	Clay	−0.22	−10%	160
81	San Sebastian 125	Clay	−0.22	−10%	80
82	Iasi	Clay	−0.26	−11%	129
83	Austin	Hard	−0.27	−8%	349
84	Rouen	Clay	−0.29	−8%	233
85	Beijing	Hard	−0.31	−6%	436
86	Eastbourne	Grass	−0.34	−6%	225
87	Stockholm	Hard	−0.34	−4%	95
88	Bogota	Clay	−0.34	−14%	220
89	Seoul	Hard	−0.34	−9%	118
90	Ljubljana 125	Clay	−0.35	−14%	120
91	Rio de Janeiro	Clay	−0.39	−8%	250
92	Marrakech	Clay	−0.39	−6%	172
93	Oeiras 125	Clay	−0.40	−14%	243
94	Tolentino 125	Clay	−0.40	−21%	80
95	Colina 125	Clay	−0.41	−21%	122
96	Santiago	Clay	−0.41	−7%	175
97	Cosenza 125	Clay	−0.41	−17%	83
98	Merida	Hard	−0.42	−15%	200
99	Jinan 125	Hard	−0.47	−15%	82
100	Charleston	Clay	−0.48	−14%	433
101	Changsha 125	Clay	−0.49	−19%	83
102	Rotterdam	Hard	−0.51	−6%	194
103	Doha	Hard	−0.59	−10%	565
104	Abu Dhabi	Hard	−0.63	−16%	199
105	Indian Wells	Hard	−0.67	−11%	1,186
106	Rabat	Clay	−0.68	−26%	233
107	Parma 125	Clay	−0.70	−23%	120
108	Buenos Aires	Clay	−0.74	−16%	237
109	Strasbourg	Clay	−0.77	−20%	222
110	Bari 125	Clay	−0.77	−27%	114
111	Madrid	Clay	−0.80	−14%	1,268
112	Montreux 125	Clay	−0.83	−32%	156
113	Antalya 125	Clay	−0.84	−36%	483
114	Dubrovnik 125	Clay	−0.86	−36%	80
115	Saint Malo 125	Clay	−0.88	−27%	250
116	Florianopolis 125	Clay	−0.96	−48%	121
117	ATP Montreal (Hard)	Hard	−0.99	−12%	216
118	Vic 125	Clay	−1.02	−35%	124
119	WTA Hamburg (Clay)	Clay	−1.04	−37%	86
120	ATP French Open	Clay	−1.19	−24%	194
121	La Bisbal d'Emporda 125	Clay	−1.24	−43%	121
122	Makarska 125	Clay	−1.41	−50%	118
123	Umag	Clay	−1.47	−26%	99
124	Houston	Clay	−1.48	−20%	170
125	Roland Garros	Clay	−1.54	−28%	2,103
126	Los Cabos	Hard	−1.75	−22%	95
127	Hamburg	Clay	−1.76	−31%	410
128	Geneva	Clay	−1.85	−23%	223
129	Rome	Clay	−1.86	−33%	1,174
130	Bucharest	Clay	−1.92	−41%	260
131	Munich	Clay	−2.13	−28%	192
132	Barcelona	Clay	−2.72	−38%	226
133	Monte Carlo Masters	Clay	−3.55	−45%	338

How this is measured

Each player against themselves. Ranking venues by raw aces per match would rank the draw, not the court: one big server in the field and the venue looks quick. Instead every observation is one player’s ace rate at this event minus their own rate everywhere else, and the index is the average of those differences.
Aces are a proxy, not the whole story. Court speed is bounce height, ball type, altitude and roof as well as surface. Aces capture how much of the serve survives the court, which is most of what “fast” means in practice — but a low index means “not many free points”, not “slow” in every sense.
Three years, tour level only. Serve statistics only exist in this database from 2024. Challenger and ITF events are excluded: their player pools are too unstable for a player’s own baseline to mean anything.
One venue, one row. The same event reaches us under several names — “Masters 1000 Monte-Carlo” and “Monte Carlo Masters” are one tournament — and they are merged before counting. The surface shown is whichever label most of the event’s matches carry.
This is not a betting signal. No part of our prediction engine reads this index. It is published because it is a true and rarely-published fact about the tour, not because we have shown it beats a price.

Which courts play fast

Does it work?

The index, fastest first

How this is measured

Which courts play fast

Does it work?

The index, fastest first

How this is measured