The traditional surface of the Wimbledon Championships is grass.
Wimbledon is played on natural grass courts, preserving the surface associated with the tournament’s origins as a lawn-tennis championship. It is the only Grand Slam tournament still played on natural grass, while the French Open uses clay and the Australian Open and US Open use hard courts.
Grass produces a distinctive style of tennis. The ball generally travels quickly and bounces lower than it does on clay, so serving, returning, rapid movement, and attacking the net have historically been especially valuable. Weather and wear also make grass demanding to maintain, which is one reason the surface is less common on the professional calendar today.
Wimbledon’s modern courts use perennial ryegrass. Since 2001, the courts have been sown with 100 percent perennial ryegrass rather than the earlier mixture that included creeping red fescue. The club moved from its original Worple Road site to Church Road in 1922, but the championship’s grass-court identity remained unchanged.