And all the while Grosjean looked so comfortable on grass, covering the surface as fast and efficiently as the ground staff when the rains came.
Yaagoubi and manufacturers argue that with modern fibers made of polyethylene or other nonabrasive materials, there is no longer an increased risk of turf burn compared with natural grass, although the surface still heats up more quickly than the real thing when temperatures rise.
All the affected grasses form a grass ring on the surface.
For the grass surface, the scaling procedures resulted in a poorer performance of the 3T model (NSE decreasing from 0.74 to 0.70), which was attributed to effects of shading and the difficulty to correct for differences in emissivity between dead and living biomass.
Young, who ranked 38th in the world in February, said the grass surface at the All England Lawn Tennis Club, where the Olympic tennis competition will be held, had "great memories for me".
Nothing quite signals nature's hibernation, the temporary cessation of growth, like a crisp layer of ice settling on the earth, whitening the grass and freezing the surface of lake and stream.
While Barbaro made the transition from grass to dirt, the surface over which he had his most significant victories, Nicanor's career appears certain to take a different direction.
By feasting on grass roots beneath the surface, the termites keep the circles — which range from 6 to 40 feet in diameter — free of vegetation and better able to absorb rainwater.
Until recently it had been one of the axioms of grass-court play that serve-and-volleyers are more likely to win, but this year, with the Wimbledon courts containing a new type of grass to slow the surface down, this has changed remarkably.
Portugal's De Brito, 20, suggested the court was slippery because there was cut grass sitting on the surface.
