Unfortunately, there is no commonly embraced or understood yardstick for court speed, and the entire business can become very confusing if you venture down the data rabbit hole.
The ITF does a sophisticated Court Pace Rating (CPR) based on laboratory and actual on-site testing with various scientific instruments. It groups those ratings in five categories, just like hurricanes: The five categories range from slow to fast, with 10-point gradations within each, topping out at 50.
Thus, a French Open rating of, say, 23, falls into category 2 (slow, but not extremely so) while a typical Australian Open rating of 42 puts it in the medium-fast category 4. By CPR metrics, most hard-court Masters events in 2024 fell into the “medium” or “medium-fast” categories of 3 to 5, Paris leading the way with a CPR of 45.5 (category 5). The Indian Wells Masters nestled in alongside Roland Garros in category 2.
The other way to establish a quantifiable court speed is “predictive,” based on data-driven, match-play metrics including aces, unreturned serve, rally length. Broadcasters rely on researchers and entities like Hawkeye to create a more dynamic Court Pace Index (CPI), showing the real-world result of surface speed. These ratings generally align with CPR values.
The Tennis Abstract website has its own surface speed rating, also created by match-play metrics and statistics. It uses the number “1” to represent average court speed. By TA metrics, the 15 fastest tournaments (led by Basel, with a rating of 1.54) include only two Masters events (Paris Indoor, No. 7 and Cincinnati Masters, No. 15).
