How Do Players Transition From Clay Season to Grass Season? | Q&Andy

Summary

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Podcast Summary: Served with Andy Roddick

Episode: How Do Players Transition From Clay Season to Grass Season? | Q&Andy
Release Date: June 18, 2026
Host: Andy Roddick
Network: Served Media Network
Co-host: [Not Named]

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Episode Overview

This Q&A episode of "Served with Andy Roddick" dives deep into tennis’s transition from clay to grass season, addressing technical, logistical, and even financial aspects of life on tour. Listeners sent in questions about the convergence of court surfaces, the impact of tennis balls, dramatic differences in movement on grass, the practicalities of player equipment, and the influence of UK taxes on player scheduling. Andy Roddick draws from his professional experience while keeping the discussion candid, technical, and entertaining.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Surface Uniformity in Tennis (01:32 – 05:49)

• Listener Question: With surfaces becoming more similar for longer, more entertaining rallies, can the ATP/Tour still innovate, or has the sport embraced uniformity?

• Surface vs. Ball

  • Andy quickly reframes the question from surfaces to tennis balls:

    “I don't know how much more uniform it can become. People talk about the surfaces. The ball really matters… The main shitty factor.” (Andy Roddick, 01:57; 03:49)

  • The ball's quality (especially post-COVID supply chain issues) has regressed, leading to more “fluffing up” and unpredictable play. (03:10)

• Quality Control Issues

  • Multiple ball suppliers, individual tournament contracts, and lack of unified regulation mean balls can differ week to week:

    “Slams have their own ball sponsors... you have to negotiate through these individual contracts... so how are you ever going to make a uniform change?” (Andy Roddick, 05:12)

  • String technology allows for more RPM and aggression, which exposes poor ball quality further.

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2. How the Ball Behaves on Grass (05:49 – 06:49)

• Hard courts (like Indian Wells) feel “like sandpaper”—they grab and slow the ball; grass courts allow for skidding, rewarding low and deep hitting.
• First-strike tennis is more important on grass—shots stay low, angles are harder to create, so aggressive, precise play is key:

  “If you can keep it low and deep... it's hard to create angles from that position, so it's effective.” (Andy Roddick, 06:29)

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3. Transitioning from Clay to Grass: The Big Adjustments (06:49 – 07:44)

• Main Adjustment: Movement
  • Clay: Defensive movement is all about sliding, finding height, and buying time.
  • Grass: Defense shifts to hitting/chipping your way out—no sliding, less time, need to “run through the shot” rather than time your slide:

    “You almost have to run through a shot half a step on grass, whereas in clay you're timing it up by sliding five feet into it...” (Andy Roddick, 07:23)

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4. The UK Tax Factor and Tournament Scheduling (09:07 – 11:19)

• Listener Question: Does competing for several weeks in the UK affect tax? How does this change player scheduling?
  • Summary: The UK has significantly higher tax rates than Germany/Netherlands; a player could earn the same prize but keep far less after UK taxes.
  • Numbers: Germany’s withholding ~16%, Netherlands ~20%, UK ~45% (Podcast Co-host, 10:14)
  • Andy’s take: He always prioritized preparation for Wimbledon, even if it meant lower take-home pay due to tax:

    “I loved Queens… I was willing to make that trade off. But I... fully understand if players decide... to make 40% more money on my earning.” (Andy Roddick, 10:35)

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5. Footwear & Slipping on Grass (11:19 – 13:48)

• Listener Question: Why not wear cleats like in other sports?

  • Cleats “chew up the surface and it’s unplayable,” causing the ball to roll if it lands in a divot. (Andy Roddick, 11:30)
  • Grass-court tennis shoes have rubber nubs for grip—no spikes. Clay shoes have grooves to let clay in/out for sliding.
  • Finished Roland Garros shoes are trashed; new grass shoes have completely different bottoms.

• Footwork and Conditions

  • Early matches at grass tournaments see more slips—grass is still green and slick.
  • Moisture and surface freshness factor in; footing is more about flowing, less about abrupt starts/stops:

    “It’s a bit of a dance.” (Andy Roddick, 14:32)

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6. Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Ball Quality:

  “The main shitty factor.” (Andy Roddick, 03:49)

• On Difference in Defensive Play:

  “The way you play defense is completely different... you can hit your way out of trouble.” (Andy Roddick, 07:00)

• On UK Crowds & Tabloids:

  “Their tennis IQ is through the roof... It’s the tabloids you got to watch out for.” (Andy Roddick, 16:15; 16:27)

• On Murray Mania:

  “The amount of scrutiny that he was under... Playing Murray there, the first six pages would cover his water breaks in practice.” (Andy Roddick, 16:45) “Winning that tournament with that amount of pressure in that fishbowl is... a huge deal, but it's completely undersold outside of Great Britain.” (Andy Roddick, 17:03)

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7. Timestamps for Key Segments

| Segment | Start Time | |-----------------------------------------------|------------| | Surface uniformity & tennis balls | 01:32 | | Impact of string/ball tech | 03:56 | | Contracts & lack of ball unification | 05:05 | | Ball behavior on grass | 05:49 | | Transition: clay to grass—movement | 06:49 | | Tax implications in UK vs. Europe | 09:07 | | Grass shoe design, slipping issues | 11:19 | | “A bit of a dance”—footwork nuance | 14:32 | | UK fan/tabloid stories, Murray at Wimbledon | 15:29 |

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Conclusion

This practical, experience-driven episode of Q&Andy spotlights how much the “little things” matter in tennis’s brief and tricky grass season. From navigating the politics of ball and tournament supplier contracts, to the subtle art of footwork, and the eye-opening realities of tax, Roddick offers listeners real insight—always with humor and a direct, conversational tone.

Fans asked about surface science, preparation, and behind-the-scenes pro life; Andy’s responses blend technical detail, tour stories, and big-picture perspective, making this episode a lively, must-hear for casual and hardcore tennis fans alike.

Transcript

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[Andy Roddick]

All right, welcome to Q and Andy. I don't know much. I'm sure it's something to do with the grass court season. Mike, what do we got?

[Podcast Co-host]

It is grass court season heavy. And thank you everybody who sent in questions over on DM's reminder. Please send us your questions. Videos would be great. No one wants to send us a free video.

[Andy Roddick]

Why don't they want to send videos?

[Podcast Co-host]

I don't know. Ask andyrfpodcast.com is the place to send? I don't know. I don't know.

[Andy Roddick]

Think of it as like a Jumbotron during a playoff game. Like just, you're on the Jumbotron.

[Podcast Co-host]

Let's do some shit. Come on. Alexander, who again could have sent this in his video, said, since tennis surfaces have gradually become more similar, with grass and hard courts often slowed down to create longer, more entertaining rallies. Do you think the ATP and Tour overall could still embrace meaningful surface innovation in the future? Or is the sport steadily moving towards more uniform playing experiences across all surfaces?

[Andy Roddick]

I don't know if it's moving towards it. It's there, got it right? Like, I don't know how much more uniform it can become. People talk about the surfaces. The ball really matters, right? And I don't know what the checks and balances are. Like you'd have, you know, like a green and golf, they have like a stint meter to measure it. Tennis, at least for Davis cup, for a while they had a way to measure how fast the course was. And they could, you know, you know, you could, you couldn't be Below it and you couldn't be above it. Now, I don't know what the quality controls are with the ball. If they fluff up, it matters a lot less how fast the court is. Right. So the adjustments are probably more to the ball being able to kind of effectuate, affect the speed. And when you have seven different ball suppliers throughout the year that are accepted on tour, it's going to be a bit of a crapshoot. I know from talking to racket Ron from Wilson Covid really messed up quality controls and they basically with supply chain, the materials they were able to get weren't as good.

[Podcast Co-host]

And you mean in Global. All tennis ball manufacturers.

[Andy Roddick]

The way that he said it, and I hope I'm understanding it and repeating it correctly, at least the gist of it is quality control went to shit during COVID with Global Supply Chain. The margins were better when you didn't correct that quality control for a lot of the ball suppliers. So therefore they didn't. So I think we're seeing maybe the quality of the ball has been terrible, which normally leads to it fluffing up, being less firm, being a little wonkier with the seams and everything else. So I would point out your, your, your fire and your questions at the balls more so than the surfaces. Obviously they both have an effect, but I think the balls are the, the main shitty factor.

[Podcast Co-host]

Can I give you, can I give a tack on this? Just thinking about. You guys talk a lot about like, you know, string technology changing a lot. And also I think now players can, as you've told me, can add more RPMs and can swing harder more often. Do you think that is also a factor of the. The ball's abuse? Like, I mean, there's just so much more torque and so much violence on the ball.

[Andy Roddick]

But if you have a ball that has shittier quality.

[Podcast Co-host]

Yeah.

[Andy Roddick]

And people are taking bigger swings and the impact is so like with wood rackets, it used to be like straight on, right. You'd play flat through. So you weren't creating this cutting mechanism every time you were hitting, right. You weren't creating that cut. So now you're doing that on every shot. The ball's going to fluff up a lot more. So it exposes quality. You know, you, you can't lie to these new strings and not have the ball fluff up. It seems like a lot of the manufacturers, and I'm not going to be a homer here, so I won't say it, but you know what I'm thinking, A lot of the manufacturers just don't really give a shit.

[Podcast Co-host]

Yeah, yeah. They're not putting the effort into the study of, like, all of the things we're talking about, right? Like, they're not putting in the quality.

[Andy Roddick]

It's like everyone else kind of stinks too. Like, I don't know, they're willing to deal with it. I'm sure the margins are better.

[Podcast Co-host]

Yeah, yeah, I guess it'd be hard, you know, if there's. There's 175 different surfaces on tour over the course of the year, how are they supposed to study all 175?

[Andy Roddick]

And I beat this drum ad nauseam. But it all comes. Most of the problems in tennis come back to this issue, right? Everyone controls their own thing. So the Slams have their own ball sponsors, which are different than the, you know, tours that. Than the tours ball sponsor. The tour has different ball sponsors for different tournaments. All of these individual contracts. So you have to negotiate through these individual contracts that end at, you know, different times. This one ends three years later than this one. So how are you ever going to make a uniform change on it? A lot of moving parts, tennis.

[Podcast Co-host]

What is, what happens to the ball specifically on grass?

[Andy Roddick]

It's so the way that I explain it, right, and the best I can do is if you go on a hard court, a slow, hard court, you rub your hand across it, it feels like you're rubbing it like Indian Wells feels like you're rubbing across sandpaper. So, so it hits and it checks and there's air there, which makes it float because it's thin air. So it's high and jumpy when it, when it gets there. If you run, if you run your hand across a putting green and you imagine a ball flying through it, it skids, right? So it gets faster through the court on a well hit ball. So first strike tennis is valued more on grass than on any other surface. So as opposed to hitting and checking and kind of, you know, floating up or spinning up, it'll go through the court a little bit more, which is why you see, you know, like a Layton Hewitt can knock down that backhand. And even if it's short like you're. You can't come in off of it because it's on your ankles, right? So ball flight, if you can keep it low and deep through the court, it's hard to create angles from that position, so it's effective.

[Podcast Co-host]

I mean, I think this kind of sets up a little bit what you're saying. Jackie wanted to know what is the biggest adjustment players have to make moving from clay to grass.

[Andy Roddick]

What movement, Movement. And you can't. You have to kind of almost hit your way out of defense or chip your way out of defense. Whereas if you're playing defense on clay, you're obviously using your sliding as a big defensive skill with movement, and a lot of times you're finding height with that next shot. Basically you're you're buying yourself time on clay, whereas on grass you're you can hit your way out of trouble, right? Even if you're on the full run and you send one, you're going to get some help from the court if you connect. So the way that you play defense is completely different. The way that you move is completely different. Like you almost have to run through a shot half a step on grass, whereas you know in clay you're timing it up by sliding five feet into it so the movement is completely different.

[Podcast Co-host]

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[Podcast Co-host]

One thing about also making that jump from Roland Garros over to kind of the grass court season was from from Ann and this was kind of leading into the tax situation I think we touched on in a previous episode. Yep, she said I heard during Roland Garros that spending several consecutive weeks competing in the UK could subject players to significantly higher UK taxes on income earned There what exactly change and how does it affect players? Scheduling decisions and obviously we're not tax experts, but yeah, you know, they skip parts of the British grass court season now and play events in Germany and Netherlands.

[Andy Roddick]

Yep. Basically it's the.

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[Andy Roddick]

Imagine if your job and you had kind of the same opportunity for points or upward mobility inside of your job, but one cost you 40% more is basically where we land.

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[Andy Roddick]

There's a certain amount of weeks, I don't know if it's a month or whatever where you get taxed because you've made the money in England, that tax doesn't exist in Germany. You were messing around with the numbers. If you win Hale and you win queens, you win the same amount of money. But your takeaway after taxes is like

[Podcast Co-host]

$163,000 difference, 40% difference or something. It's from our rudimentary ability to google. Apparently Germany' withholdings are 15.8%. Netherlands is 20. UK's rate through a complication of tax code jumps around 45%.

[Andy Roddick]

Yep.

[Podcast Co-host]

You know, so that, that 500k turns into 300 or verse 472.

[Andy Roddick]

Yeah.

[Podcast Co-host]

At holiday.

[Andy Roddick]

Which, which is a factor. You know, I love, I loved Queens. It was one of my favorite tournaments ever. I chose to play there. Even though you're taking a bit of a bath now. I also had the ability to negotiate an appearance fee. Not especially when you start winning it a bunch like you can, you have a little bit more leverage. So in my mind I had one goal only goal, win Wimbledon. I was not going to sacrifice what I thought was the best preparation. I thought that was in Queens. I liked being in central London and then driving out to Wimbledon village. I liked that whole run. I was willing to make that trade off. But I, yeah, I mean I fully understand if players decide, yeah, I'd like to prepare and also make 40% more money on my earning.

[Podcast Co-host]

Ivan wrote, from my understanding, footwork is one of the most important skills on good grass courts. I was wondering why tennis players don't wear cleats like other grass sports to help traction on the grass.

[Andy Roddick]

Because you chew up the surface and it's unplayable. Like if you make a cleat mark and dig it up and a ball lands on it, it rolls. You can't. It's. That's not, that's not possible.

[Podcast Co-host]

Can you explain the, the, the difference on the bottoms of shoes from your clay season to like, you know, how many different pairs of shoes you had during the year? But I, I think it is interesting Right, the old, the old school, like puma soccer cleats that I used to have just had like the little tiny teeth, but they didn't have like a ton.

[Andy Roddick]

Yeah, you have, you have like rubber nubs, but they're, they're not a spike. Yeah, right. And that, that's acceptable. You can't, you can't really play high level tennis on grass in like a hardcore shoe. Just slide all over the place. Like you need to have some grip. So players, maybe, maybe I should have said they do wear a specific shoe that helps you dig and acts like a tiny, you know, maybe has some of the same things as a cleat. But you can't have like a cleat and chew up the court. Like you can't put a two inch hole into a grass court. Measure two weeks of that, you're dead.

[Podcast Co-host]

Yeah.

[Andy Roddick]

You know, it's not a field that's taking up like soccer pitch or something else where, you know, it's just a little bit different clay. There are like grooves so that clay can go into it and go out of it. But if you don't want to grip, you want to be able to like slide. So you can't have like those, those pods on a clay court shoe. So the bottoms are completely different. So you finish Roland Garros, whatever you have left, you know, you're, you're basically giving away or trashing and then you arrive to, you know, same shoe, but completely different bottom on the shoe.

[Podcast Co-host]

I mean, to follow up to that, just out of my own curiosity, you know, we saw Vicki and Boca slip at Queens and then we actually during robot in his match, saw her slip as well. Kind of the same slip, you know, And I'm not saying that is the surface's fault, but can you explain, you know, the moisture difference in the grass? That's a little bit different. But then also just that years of experience of being like, once I get over from clay, I really have to double down on my footwork.

[Andy Roddick]

Well, especially early in tournaments, the greener you see it, the more you're going to have those like slip and falls. And there's also a strategy. Like it's hard to switch directions and get your footing, so you kind of have to flow through a shot, flow back, whereas everything else is like starting and stopping very violently. Right. So you do see. I mean, Queens is like arguably the best grass court in the world. Like it's, it's, it's not the, I mean, what they do there, it's like, it's perfect.

[Podcast Co-host]

Yeah.

[Andy Roddick]

And at. You got to start the matches at some point early in the day, do is slightly gone, but the greener the court. Like, you're not going to see as many slips in the men's tournament at Queens this year because it's already had a week of play. So you're digging into, like, drier grass in. In some parts, dirt, as opposed to just clean grass, which is slippery. It's going to happen. But that's also why, like, you see Radicanu does it really well. Someone's work very. You play against their movement on grass maybe more than other surfaces, because it's tough to kind of switch directions. But that's all part of it. You know, the. The movement's not as violent as a clay court or as, like, aggressive as a clay court, but it is nuanced. Like you. You know, it's that constant thing where, okay, I have to be settled and then run full out. I can't just, like, switch directions and run full out. Like everything else, it's. It's a bit of a. It's a bit of a dance.

[Podcast Co-host]

That's amazing. All right, Andy, that's. That's it for the grass court questions, but we do have the random question of the day.

[Andy Roddick]

Saw you play the music.

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[Podcast Co-host]

All right, so what is the funniest thing you ever heard yelled at from the stands by a fan at you during a match? That is from John. You've already told us the story, I think from.

[Andy Roddick]

That's what I was going to say.

[Podcast Co-host]

From Houston.

[Andy Roddick]

Yeah.

[Podcast Co-host]

So, I mean, let's make it. Let's make it British. What is the wildest thing you had yelled at from a fan while playing over in the great uk?

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I don't remember that.

[Andy Roddick]

I mean, they're. They're nicer than we are. I don't know the answer to that. I do remember. I do remember I played Murray in the semis of Wimbledon in 09. I remember reading that morning. The paper was out and they were previewing his final against Roger.

[Podcast Co-host]

Yeah.

[Andy Roddick]

Already I'm like, well, I mean, that's a little offensive.

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[Podcast Co-host]

You guys haven't even played yet.

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I know.

[Andy Roddick]

I feel like I've been in the finals this tournament before. I do remember thinking, like, I'm going to go into that match and I make the joke to my team, because obviously you go in there and like, I had a great relationship with the crowd at Wimbledon, even during that match where they're cheering for their guy and he hasn't won it yet. They were still great to me. But I remember just thinking that whenever they said, come on, Andy, I was just going to pretend like it was for me. But they were even, even in that match. They were respectful. Their tennis IQ is through the roof. So uk, then.

[Podcast Co-host]

It's the tabloids that you got to watch out for the tap.

[Andy Roddick]

Well, I. So I say that about the papers.

[Podcast Co-host]

Yeah.

[Andy Roddick]

Playing Murray there, the first six pages were. They would cover his water breaks in practice. There was a pink substance that he was drinking. Like. Yeah, it's electrolytes.

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Like, what are you doing?

[Andy Roddick]

Like, who cares? It was, it was the amount of scrutiny that he was under.

[Podcast Co-host]

Yeah.

[Andy Roddick]

Probably after Hinman, like Hanman created the, the, the mainstream obsession where this actually might happen for the first time in 100 years earlier, 80 years at that point, whatever it was, Murray playing through and winning that tournament with that amount of pressure in that fishbowl is. It was a huge deal, but it's completely undersold. Outside of Great Britain, like, we're talking screens up across the country, hundreds of thousands of people gathering to watch massive screens. But it's not a team, it's one person. It's the fact that he did it and then did it again. It's. It's one that story should be. I, like, I want to sit down with him. That would be like a dream show to sit down with him and actually get an honest look back at the amount of pressure that he felt. Because I had never seen anything like it and I participated. I was on the other side of it. He was having to deal with it. I was just there. It was nuts.

[Podcast Co-host]

That's it. That's all we got for you today.

[Andy Roddick]

Thanks for watching Q and Andy. See you next week.

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