A native of Chicago, Roger Clarke is a tennis professional at the Hinsdale Racquet Club, a position he has held since 2011. Roger Clarke also serves as a tennis pro at the LaGrange Country Club just outside Chicago.
As recently as 2011, the International Tennis Federation (ITF) recognized more than 160 unique tennis court surfaces, from wood to artificial grass. That said, the modern professional tour is played almost entirely on hardcourts, clay courts, and grass courts, with the lone exception being a Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) event in Quebec City, which is played on carpet.
Carpet is, in fact, the most recent tennis surface to be phased out of professional competition. On the men’s side, the final matches on carpet were contested throughout the opening round of Davis Cup competition during the 2009 season. Prior to the discontinuation of carpet, a number of the indoor hard court tournaments held at the end of the season were played on carpet, including the Paris Masters and Kremlin Cup, as well as several editions of the year-end championships. Historically, John McEnroe leads all players with 43 titles on the surface.
The decision to end tennis on carpets has been met with some controversy. The unforgiving nature of the surface has been attributed to numerous injuries, the primary motivation for ending its use. However, accomplished pros such as Jo Wilfried Tsonga and Mario Ancic have praised carpet courts as an invaluable tool in developing strategies for fast court tennis. Notable finalists in recent years at the Quebec City event, meanwhile, include Venus Williams, Jelena Ostapenko, and Mirjana Lucic Baroni.
