Flushing's blue courts are red-hot-fast
Laykold & Pace Precision: The US Open
Do Milliseconds Matter?
We know it when we see it: a player in the zone, flowing from moment to moment and feeling at one with the game itself.
It comes down to how adept a player is at managing a multitude of varying factors as they compete on the court. Their opponent, the weather conditions, their mindset and their body, how they deal with close line calls and potential distractions, their preparation on the training courts and with hitting partners.
It is a long list and it all needs to be taken into consideration if a player is to compete day in day out to their peak.
Within this rarefied space, the court itself is foundational to performance and outcome, and the pace of the court is key.
In a nutshell, the pace sets the standard, and this is where Laykold has the edge.
Measuring pace within .5 of a point, rather than with 5 points
The International Tennis Federation (ITF) classifies courts in categories of 1 to 5, with court pace ratings (CPR) based on a relatively wide-ranging points scale. For example, a medium/fast court would have a CPR of 40-45. So traditionally, determining the pace of a court has allowed for quite a wide variance, which does not match the exacting performance needs of the world’s elite tournaments’ and requirements for pace precision.
For the world’s best players to have control, they need consistency that can be dialled in to the court.
Laykold is literally the pace setting, we developed a formulation database that enables our scientists to perfect pace ratings. This allows speed to be tailored for individual tournaments to within 0.5 of a point.
To deliver this level of pace precision, the type and blend of sand used in the court surface is critical. The specific angles of the grains and how they interact with the grains around them determine the levels of friction between the ball and the court, rendering them agents of pace.
Precision & Consistency deliver First Strike Tennis
The player that strikes first and strikes hardest, wins. The first four shots – serve, return, each player’s next shot – are crucial to first strike tennis. Laykold’s calibrated consistency and Pace Precision support and encourage this style of attacking play.
The US Open is known as the fastest Grand Slam tournament, and to meet the needs of its organizers, Laykold taps into over 25 years of exhaustive testing, scientific research and unbeatable know-how to deliver the requested pace rating to within 0.5 of a point, guaranteeing consistency.
The pace precision of the ball speed that Laykold achieves on its hard courts is unique in the industry and enables players to be more in control of what’s happening where the action happens – during the points, in the zone, where milliseconds can be the difference between a winning shot or heartbreak.
From Flushing Meadows to your club
The reason Laykold is able to maintain pace precision on courts comes down the consistency built into Laykold topcoat systems.
At the club level Laykold hard courts maintain speed consistency far longer than any other hard court surface in the industry. This means that not only will the pace of your court not vary dramatically from one end of the court to the other, but the pace ratings of your tennis courts will remain consistent over the long life of their service.
Laykold – Trusted & Chosen
Knowing that the court ‘at both ends’ and throughout the venue is going to maintain a matching speed rating for event’s duration is why Laykold is trusted and chosen by 8 out of 14 hard court events in the USA and Canada).