Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner: Are tennis courts slowing down to help superstars?

Bates toured from 1980 to 1996. He rarely plays on slow pitches.

“During that time, there were two completely separate tours,” he explains.

“All the players play on clay courts and then you have all the other players who play on fast courts and the only time you see clay court players is on French courts. [Open] the only time we can see [those that preferred fast courts] Will be at Wimbledon and other Grand Slam tournaments.

“All the indoor courts we play on are very slick. The question is how fast you can get to the net.

“Most of the top 20 are serve and volley. Some are playing in the backcourt. It actually makes it interesting to watch because you have two completely contrasting styles of play, whereas the vast majority of players you see these days just cancel each other out.”

Serena Williams’ former coach Patrick Mouratoglou said the move to slow down the court “killed a generation of serve and volley players”.

“But I think it’s better for the game because otherwise you have too many aces and service winners and I think it’s very boring,” he said.

“If you think about it, tennis is very slow. Aces are one-second matches, and 30-second wait times on tours, which is crazy when you think about it – especially in today’s world, where consumers aren’t going to wait that long and if there’s no action, you’re going to lose them.”

What if the Cincinnati Championship tried to increase course speed even more?

“We’ll hear it, we’ll certainly hear it from the players,” Moran continued.

“I think we were a little faster than normal last year. The players told us we were too fast last year – almost like ice. I don’t know if we can be that much faster than last year.”

“In my opinion, great scoring, scoring building, rallies — I think that’s what fans are looking for.”