Your Call, Clay Court Edition

Mornin', everyone. It's official, the clay-court season is upon us, and that's a time of year that always creates some lively discussion. For a good portion of yesterday in the post below there were interesting comments made on the concept of "point construction." Is tennis on clay really more like the proverbial chess? Do players really think four, five moves ahead? If you "construct" a great point but your opponent shanks a desperate volley that falls for a winnner, does that mean your effort failed? My feeling is that the game can't be compared to chess in meaningful sense; it's played on a board with far fewer squares and pieces, and it's played on the run (despite the 30-second rule). And the fact that the person across the has an influence on your next move, to a degree that can vary from minimal to total, without you having any say whatsoever in the matter, also undermines the analogy. That doesn't mean that the clay game doesn't have a different tone and pace than tennis on other surfaces; it can and often does. Use this first Your Call of the new season to talk about the action today, or tennis in general. I'll be back later. In other words, your move.

-- Pete