PARIS (AP) — The scorching heat wave that has gripped Paris since the start of the French Open isn’t just pushing the players to their limits. The clay courts risk cracking, too, under the intense sun.
Unseasonably hot weather has seen temperatures soar to at least 90 degrees — far beyond normal for late May in the French capital — on all four days of the tournament so far. And the heat is forecast to continue through the rest of the week.
On Tuesday, the temperature at Roland Garros peaked at 95.
“What we’re experiencing is unprecedented,” said Philippe Vaillant, the head of court maintenance at the French Open. “Even the weather services say it themselves: it’s unprecedented to have temperatures this high for such a long period at this time of year. I had concerns when the weather service announced periods of intense heat.”
When heat waves hit, the clay surface can quickly change in consistency, affecting bounce and player safety.
So, Vaillant and his team of 200 groundskeepers have had to dip into their bag of tricks to protect the venue’s 18 courts, plus 15 additional off-site courts used for practice. There’s extra watering — lots of it — plus the strategic spreading of calcium chloride.
In hot weather, the French Open courts dry out much faster, which leads to quicker, slightly different play on the traditionally slow surface.
Top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka, after her first-round victory over Jessica Bouzas Maneiro, observed: “Now it’s, like, boiling hot and balls are flying, everything is much faster.”
Vaillant’s goal is to preserve clay-court playing conditions as much as possible.
“We’re forced to water the courts a little more, of course,” he said during an interview at Roland Garros on Wednesday.
In the evening, his teams literally soak the courts to recharge the different layers, so that the next day the water rises back up through the limestone base beneath the crushed red brick.
Calcium chloride
Vaillant also has another ally: calcium chloride.
“Which is basically just salt,” he said. “We spread it over the courts in flake form in the morning. It melts on contact with water and helps retain surface moisture. And of course, the court dries out because of player movement.”
During matches, courts are watered between each set — something groundskeepers do not normally do under standard temperature conditions. The watering is kept light so play can resume quickly.
“This light watering reactivates the calcium chloride that remains in the crushed brick layer,” said Vaillant, who started at Roland Garros in 1995. “We only apply it in the morning, roughly one 25-kilogram bag per court.”
