Laykold Court Surface: The Rest of the Story

Tennis Technology Tuesday

In March of this year, the USTA announced a new court surface for the US Open and the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. Since the Cincinnati Open was also played at that facility as a part of the COVID-19 “Double Bubble,” we have already experienced a preview of play on the surface. By all reports, the surface is playing extremely “fast” especially on the outer courts.

The new surface represents the first time that the surface of the US Open has been changed since 1978. For the past 42 years, the surface at the US Open has been “DecoTurf” hard courts. The new contract for Laykold has a five year duration.

Laykold is not exactly a newcomer to the industry. The surface is already in use at the Miami Open and New York Open. It has also been selected by the United States as the surface for the last three hosted Fed Cub ties. The manufacturer has been providing tennis court surfaces for over 75 years.

The press releases and current news about the new Laykold surface hint at the fact that the surface meets environmental sustainability objectives by the USTA. If you are wondering exactly what that means, it can be summarized in two words. Tennis balls.

About 125 million tennis balls are sold in the United States each year. The vast majority of those end up in landfills. Sustainability initiatives include recycling used tennis balls into court surfaces. Sometimes that means an under layer of cushioning.

A company called “Advanced Polymer Technology” has been instrumental in developing technology to use recycled tennis balls directly into tennis court surfaces. If you have ever deposited a tennis ball into one of those “Ad-In Bins” that are frequently found hanging on the fence of tennis facilities, then there is a chance that ball has made it into a surface developed by Advanced Polymer Technology.

As you might have guessed by now, the manufacturer of the new Laykold surface at the US Open is Advanced Polymer Technology. So there is a chance that one of your old tennis balls might be underfoot the tennis professionals competing at the US Open this week.

In my best Paul Harvey impersonation to date. “And now you know the rest of the story.”

1. USTA Selects Sport Group’s Laykold as the New Court Surface for the US Open, US Open Press Release, March 23, 2020.
2. US Open picks Laykold as new surface, embracing first change in New York since 1978!, Tennis World, March 24, 2020.
3. Yellow, Fuzzy and Flat: Where Do Recycled Tennis Balls Go?, Stuart Miller, The New York Times, September 10, 2016.