Question: Are there special shoes for each tennis court surface?

Answer: Special shoes with little bumps on the sole are made for the slippery grass courts, but many players just use their regular shoes as they do on clay and hard courts. Most clay-court clubs require players to wear shoes with relatively fine treads, because the deeper treads on some athletic shoes would chew up the court surface.

Question: Can I play tennis in my running shoes?

Answer: Running shoes on a tennis court are a sprained or broken ankle waiting to happen. Running shoes are built with a thick, soft heel to maximize cushioning for straight-forward, heel-to-toe foot impacts. Runners don't cut sharply sideways, and the running shoe sole, especially the heel, is much too unstable for the sideways movements of tennis.

Question: Which is the best tennis shoe upper material: canvas, leather, or vinyl?

Answer: Canvas stays coolest, breathes best, and is least likely to contain suspect chemicals that might enter your skin. Leather can provide more support and will stay drier in wet off-court environments. Vinyl can provide good support, and it resists external moisture best, but it tends to get hottest and breathe worst. Durability is rarely an issue with tennis shoe uppers because the soles usually wear out long before the uppers do.

Types of tennis courts

There are four main types of courts depending on the materials used for the court surface: clay courts, hard courts, grass courts and indoor courts (carpet, rubber or wood). Each playing surface has its own characteristics which affect the playing style of the game.

Of the Grand Slam tournaments, the U.S. Open and Australian Open use hardcourts (though both used grass courts in the past, and the U.S. Open also used clay courts from 1975 through 1977), the French Open is played on clay (though it too was played on grass before 1928), and Wimbledon is played on grass.

Clay courts

Clay courts are made of crushed shale, stone or brick. The red clay is slower than the green, or Har-Tru "American" clay. The French Open uses clay courts, making it unique among the Grand Slam titles.

Clay courts slow down the ball and produce a high bounce when compared to grass courts or hard courts. For this reason, the clay court takes away some advantage of big serves, which makes it hard for serve-based players to dominate on the surface.

Although more traditional and cheaper to construct than other types of tennis courts, the maintenance costs of a clay surface are higher than those of hard courts. Clay courts need to be rolled to preserve flatness. The clay's water content must be balanced; green courts generally require the courts to be sloped to allow water run-off.

Clay courts are more common in Europe and South America than in North America. In the United States, courts made of green clay, also known as "rubico", are often called "clay," but are not made of the same clay used in most European and South American countries.