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Sam Querrey was 17 years old when he first set foot on the red clay.
He had never even practiced on the surface, and now he was playing in the junior tournament at the 2005 French Open. He didn’t know what to expect, but knew he would have to figure it out fast on the most famous clay courts in the world.
Chris Eubanks was even older. He was 22 when he first played a competitive match on the red clay. He had surprised himself by making the qualifying draw at Roland Garros in 2018 — and was left without much time for preparation.
“I knew it was going to be a tough ask, I’ll put it that way,” Eubanks told ESPN this month. “But I was excited and knew I was a decent enough player that I could maybe handle some discomfort, and I thought I could figure out the movement. I remember thinking, ‘If it’s warm and the ball is flying, maybe I have a chance.’ But it was a cool Parisian morning, and I was on and off the court in a little over an hour.”
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While many young European players grow up playing on the red clay, the surface has been an unfamiliar sight stateside, with American players often getting their first experiences with it far later than many of their peers. Despite the delay, some American women have fared well during the clay-court portion of the season — Serena Williams was a three-time winner at Roland Garros, Coco Gauff is the reigning champion, and Sloane Stephens and Sofia Kenin have both reached the final at the Slam in recent years. But it has been mostly a struggle for the men. Since Andre Agassi won the French Open title in 1999, no American man has even reached the semifinals at the major.
The American men have been making strides in recent years, though, thanks in part to a renewed emphasis of the surface by the United States Tennis Association (USTA) and individual players. During the 2025 French Open, both Frances Tiafoe and Tommy Paul reached the quarterfinals. Learner Tien, 20, claimed his first ATP title on the surface Saturday in Geneva, becoming the youngest American man to earn a tour-level trophy on clay since 1989. And Ben Shelton won the 500-level title in Munich in April — marking the biggest title for the American men on clay since 2002.
A total of 18 American men made the main draw in Paris, the most since 1995.
“[Shelton’s victory] was such a positive indicator that we’re moving in the right direction,” mentioned Kent Kinnear, who oversees men’s tennis at the USTA. “I think there are a number of our players that are very good on the clay, and the hope is we’ll continue to get more titles like that, hopefully a French Open title. Obviously it’s incredibly, incredibly tough, incredibly competitive, but I feel like we keep making more progress.”
The composition of the red clay at Roland Garros is an exact science, made up of precise measurements of red brick dust, crushed white limestone, volcanic residue and crushed gravel, with a layer of stones for drainage at the bottom. It requires an intensive maintenance procedure — including lots and lots of water — and a watchful eye on changing weather.
And while creating it, and keeping it pristine, is a challenge, playing on it requires another level of technical prowess.
The red clay is the slowest of the surfaces. Balls bounce higher and lose speed after making contact with the ground. As players have more time to set up a shot, it requires a more tactical game style and often features longer rallies. And of course, there’s the movement. As evidenced by players such as Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz more recently, the red clay allows for players to slide across the court — a crowd-thrilling technique but one that requires practice, familiarity and a healthy degree of confidence.
For players from places in which the red clay is prevalent, like much of Europe and South America, the nuances of the surface are almost second nature.
“I think it just provides an inherent advantage for them,” Querrey, the former world No. 11-turned-analyst and podcaster, told ESPN. “They’ve played on it forever, and they have just a grittiness on it, or in the back of their minds can develop a point in a way that Americans just can’t.”
As counterintuitive as it might sound, Gauff might be a prime example of what Querrey is saying. Despite growing up in Florida, Gauff began training at the Mouratoglou Academy in France as a 10-year-old and spent much of her time on the red clay while there. It quickly became, and remains, one of her best surfaces. She won her first junior Grand Slam title at the French Open as a 14-year-old and has since won the singles and doubles titles at the major.
Coco Gauff grew up playing on the red clay — and won the French Open last year. (Photo by Robert Prange/Getty Images)Many Americans, especially those in the southeast, do grow up playing on clay, albeit the green variety, known as Har-Tru. While there are some similarities with the red clay, the green clay is made up of ground metabasalt stone and is grainier, resulting in a faster speed of play and a shorter slide.”The green clay is typically a little bit slipperier than the red clay, and the sliding on it is different,” Eubanks, a former top-30 player and current analyst, mentioned. “The sliding on a red clay court just gives you more stability, which means you’re allowed to put more force into your legs as you’re decelerating, which is all sliding is, just you stopping and decelerating. On the green clay, because it’s slipperier, it’s a little bit easier. So then Americans get on the red clay, they try their normal slide and they’re like, ‘Man, I’m not going anywhere’ or ‘I really got to force.’ There’s a real learning curve.”While substantially different from the red clay, the green clay can be seen almost as a middle ground between the hard court and the European clay. Held directly at the end of the spring hard-court season and ahead of the European clay season, the ATP’s U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championships and the WTA’s Charleston Open are both played on Har-Tru surfaces and can be a helpful transition for many Americans. With draws made up with large numbers of American players, both tournaments frequently have American champions.But it has been a different story for the men on European clay. Agassi was the last to win a Masters-1000 title on the surface at the Italian Open in 2002, and before Shelton’s triumph in April, Todd Martin had been the last American man to claim a 500-title on the surface — all the way back in 1998.The USTA knew something needed to change.The organization first decided to make a push toward the green clay about 15 years ago, according to Kinnear. Initially it organized a circuit of tournaments near Boca Raton (its base at the time), on the surface in order for players to get more experience on it. Players would then train on it at the campus as much as possible.”Unless they had a hard-court tournament coming up, we would try to get the practices, the training on the clay,” Kinnear mentioned. “It’s better for their bodies [due to the softer surface], it’s better for point construction, and it’s something that we were obviously a little bit behind the rest of the world, especially Europe and South America, in.”But it wasn’t enough. While the green clay did help in many of the ways Kinnear mentioned, it simply wasn’t closing the gap with those who played regularly on the red clay. As part of the creation and opening of a new national campus in Orlando in 2017, the organization added six red clay courts.Importing 450 tons of red clay from Italy — the same as used at the Italian Open — the USTA got to work in replicating the courts the best it could. Groundskeepers from the tournament came to show the team in Orlando how to best maintain the surface. Kinnear called the intense groundskeeping “an art form.” It was a massive and costly undertaking.Nearly a decade later, the courts remain some of the most popular and in-use at the facility throughout the year. And for players who train at the national campus, it allows them to regularly play on the surface from a young age. The results have been immediate for the younger generation, with Americans winning the previous two junior Davis Cup and Billie Jean King Cup tournaments on the surface.”To me it shows that our guys and our girls can play with the rest of the world on the red clay,” Kinnear mentioned. “We’re learning how to play on it. We’re versatile enough to be able to compete at the highest level on it.”Twenty-year-old Learner Tien won the Geneva Open title on Saturday, becoming the youngest American man to earn a tour-level trophy on clay since 1989. James Fearn/Getty ImagesEubanks, who began training at the national campus around the same time as his French Open debut, called the courts a game changer for those around the facility.”It’s huge,” Eubanks mentioned. “It gives you a sense of familiarity with what is an unpredictable surface. You get to develop your movement, you get to practice your shots, and you get to see what shots are working. You get to give yourself more time to practice and acclimate to it than just waiting until you get over to Europe and then saying, ‘All right, let’s try to figure this out.'”While still largely cost prohibitive, a handful of other facilities across the country have also built their own red clay courts, including the Junior Tennis Champions Center in College Park, Maryland, and the Farm & Forge Club in Nashville. Hailey Baptiste, who grew up training at the JTCC, recently made headlines after defeating world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka at the Madrid Open and then calling the red clay her “favorite surface” on the “Love All with Kim Clijsters” podcast.
“In the past you didn’t hear many Americans say that,” a surprised Kinnear mentioned with a laugh when told of Baptiste’s revelation.
As of this season, the USTA was able to add two junior ITF tournaments on red clay to the spring schedule — something the organization called “intentional.”
“The red clay has become a priority for us,” Kinnear mentioned. “Traditionally, we’ve been the big serve, big forehand type country and [the red clay] slows the ball down enough where you’ve got to develop all these other elements — the movement, the physicality out of the corners, the heaviness of your groundstrokes, the consistency of your groundstrokes, being more selective on when you’re coming to the net, because if you come in on the wrong ball, you’re much more exposed. All these skills are going to help you on all courts. It’s a big developmental plus across the board in our opinion.”
After winning the biggest match of his career on Sunday against No. 7 seed and fellow American Taylor Fritz in his first main draw appearance at Roland Garros, 21-year-old Nishesh Basavareddy was asked by a reporter if he had any previous experience on the red clay. He was adamant in his response.
“In juniors the USTA does quite a good job now of making us train a lot on it,” Basavareddy mentioned. “So in juniors I did quite a lot.”
After claiming the trophy in Munich with a 6-2, 7-5 win over Flavio Cobolli in the final, Shelton was keenly aware of the history he had made. The 23-year-old, born the same year as Agassi’s Italian Open victory, knew the moment was bigger than just himself.
“It’s huge. I have big ambitions on clay — a surface I want to keep improving on each year,” Shelton mentioned. “It has become one of my favorite surfaces to play on…
“We had two guys in the quarterfinals of the French Open last year. Success on clay is coming back. I am looking forward to being part of this progression of U.S. men’s tennis on clay. On the women’s side, they have a lockdown as they won the French last year. We, as the men, have some more to do, but we are heading into the right direction. This is just one step in a long swing, and let’s see what happens.”
Since then, Shelton hasn’t had the same success. He lost in his opening-round matches in both Madrid and Rome but still entered Roland Garros as the No. 5 seed and the highest-ranked American. He defeated Daniel Merida in the opening round but is in the unenviable position of being in No. 1-ranked Jannik Sinner’s quarter of the draw.
Until last week, none of the other American men had fared particularly well in Europe. But then Tien won the first ATP title of his career on the surface with a dominant run in Geneva featuring wins over former French Open finalist Stefanos Tsitsipas and 2025 quarterfinalist Alexander Bublik, and Paul, who had been winless in Madrid and Rome, reached the final in Hamburg. Both Tien and Paul advanced to the second round with relative ease this week.
Tiafoe, now ranked No. 22, reached the Round of 32 in his lone European lead-in event, but won his opening-round match in Paris in four sets against countryman Eliot Spizzirri. No. 9 Fritz had been sidelined for most of the clay portion of the season with a knee injury but returned in Geneva. The rust was evident in the loss to Basavareddy.
And a major can bring out the best in players and, as Kinnear pointed out, Shelton’s recent breakthrough will likely serve as a motivator for the rest of the Americans in the draw.
“[Shelton’s] win just helps build up the confidence for all,” Kinnear mentioned. “There’s a really powerful dynamic between a generation of players who are growing up together. They’re all climbing together, and when one of them has that kind of [unprecedented] success, it takes a little bit of the mystique away from it and then they feel like they can do that too.”
The “King of Clay” Rafael Nadal dominated at Roland Garros for nearly 20 years, with 14 French Open titles. MARTIN DIVISEK/EPA-EFE/ShutterstockOf course, no American man has won a major title — on any surface — since 2003, and it hasn’t just been the conditions of the red clay that have stood between the American men and the Roland Garros title over the past 27 years.”I feel like the biggest problem has been Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz,” Querrey mentioned. “For me, it’s just like there’s been such dominance from those three players in particular and you could ask the Germans, the British and the Australians about their struggles at the tournament too for that same reason.”
But with Nadal, the “King of Clay” and a 14-time winner, now retired, Djokovic calling himself “half a step” behind in his only lead-in clay-court match this season in Rome, and Alcaraz, the two-time defending champion, missing the tournament with a wrist injury, could this be the year an American snaps the Grand Slam drought and wins the trophy in Paris?
Querrey doesn’t think so.
“If the draw opens up, I would be comfortable saying Shelton or Paul could make a semifinal, but I don’t believe anyone can win a major tournament outside of Alcaraz and Sinner. As long as one of them is in the draw, I will never pick against them.”
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