Speedy centre court stuns Soweto field

THE Soweto Open held at the Arthur Ashe Tennis Centre in Soweto had a number of players surprised with the extremely fast court conditions, mainly on centre court, in the first round yesterday.

South African Izak Van der Merwe, a finalist from last year, spoke about the conditions after a hard-fought 7-5 7-6 victory over American Daniel Cox.

"The centre court is very fast, I think it's faster than last year. The ball really skids through. Even in my warm-up, I came out there and felt like the ball was coming through really fast.

"The court just erodes with the weather and it becomes smoother if they don't resurface it, which they didn't," Van der Merwe said.

The tournament is in its last year of a three- year contract but the courts are normally only resurfaced every three to four years.

It was cleared by ATP and International Tennis Federation officials to be in satisfactory condition for tour play.

Maintaining the facilities, which have a total of 16 courts, is an expensive exercise and will need confirmation of future tournament play before work can begin.

Petra Cetkovska, the No 2 women's seed from the Czech Republic who beat Anais Laurendon of France 6-3 6-3, was amazed at how different the conditions are on centre court compared to the other surfaces.

"I don't mind fast courts, but this one is really fast.

"The centre court is much faster than the other courts," Cetkovska said.