This is the story of Albert and Albert. One is a groundskeeper in Cologne, the other is the Prince of Monaco. Without people like her, tennis wouldn’t be what it is.
This is the story of Albert and Albert. One is the groundskeeper of Lindenthal and the other is the Prince of Monaco. Let’s just call them Albert and Albert II. Without people like them, tennis wouldn’t be what it is.
Albert is tired. In the past few days, he and his team have dumped 25 tons of brick dust onto the squares. 140 wheelbarrows. There has to be brick dust, without brick dust there would be no tennis, it would be like bread without toppings. Brick dust is the good red stuff that goes on top, more colloquially known as sand or ash. The season starts again here in Cologne-Lindenthal a week after Easter, and it’s Albert’s job to make sure that everything is in perfect condition. Because Albert is a groundskeeper and the tennis facility in the city forest is his domain.
Every year at the same time, when winter has passed through the wire mesh, Albert’s most strenuous work of the year begins. The tennis courts, which are in a dilapidated condition after wet and frosty months outdoors, need to be prepared for the summer season; the German invented the word spring repair for this.
Albert, who comes from Poland, has never heard of this before, he is just happy that he is almost finished and doesn’t have to roll anymore. This is now done by the motorized Futura ride-on roller; Albert only has to steer. As he sits there on his clay court tractor and flattens the courts, lane after lane, he seems to be really enjoying himself. “We’re all still little boys”he grins.
The tennis facility in Cologne-Lindenthal is being prepared for the new season.
Zverev comes on a scooter
A good thousand kilometers further south, Albert II is posing with the patron of the “Rolex Monte Carlo Masters”. His kingdom is Monaco, and the oldest clay court tournament in the world is currently running again at the sophisticated Monte Carlo Country Club, of which Albert II is an honorary member and which was founded by his grandfather almost 100 years ago. It’s the start of the clay court season and almost the entire elite is there: Alcaraz, Sinner, Zverev, Medvedev. Conveniently, most people live just around the corner. Zverev arrives by scooter instead of by plane; the atmosphere at the tournament is both royal and familiar.
Spring repairs are not necessary here, the mild climate on the Cote d’Azur allows the 2,400 club members to play tennis all year round on the finest brick dust. Eight full-time groundskeepers look after the 21 courts around the clock. “Honestly, I missed it so much,” admits Carlos Alcaraz, considered the best clay court player in the world. It’s been a long time since the last match on this surface, and the clay court season for tennis professionals lasts just over eight weeks. But there is a full program. Three Masters in quick succession, Monte Carlo, Madrid and Rome, before the French Open puts the lid on the sandbox again at the end of May.
“There is no better place to play tennis”
Next to the French Open, Monte Carlo is the most prestigious tournament. “In terms of sight and view, it is the most beautiful tournament we have on the tour, everything is very aesthetic”enthuses Alcaraz as he looks with sparkling eyes at the center court, which is built directly over the cliffs facing the sea. “There is no better place to play tennis”says his competitor Jannik Sinner, even though the world number two had not yet won a single major clay court tournament until Sunday. Then he beat Alcaraz in the final.
And then there is Daniil Medvedev. He doesn’t care about the outlook; the sight of the red ash makes him feel hatred. The tournament is over pretty quickly for the Russian. In the 0:6 and 0:6 against Matteo Berrettini, number 90 in the world rankings, he literally smashed his tennis racket to pieces and neatly disposed of the scrap in the trash can. Medvedev also lives in Monte Carlo, and in the principality they don’t throw garbage on the streets.
Albert doesn’t like cleaning up dirt at all. Unfortunately, there is a lot of it on the squares in Cologne’s city forest, which also comes from the location. There are a lot of trees in the middle of the forest, and they shed everything they can in autumn and winter. In the spring, when Albert opens the facility for the first time in more than four months, things look correspondingly pitiful. “And then we have to remove the old ash, that’s the worst part, this huge area.”groans Albert. “The ash is really dirty, basically dead. In some places moss or weeds have grown, which is annoying.” At least there is a spring repair device for this, a kind of rake, only with a continuous sheet metal. Without that, Albert would be poor and with him the approximately 9,000 other groundskeepers in Germany.
The unsung heroes of tennis
Because the red tennis court is a German cultural asset. Here there is the world’s highest density of clay courts per inhabitant, spread over almost 9,000 clubs. In contrast to the professional tour, the clay court season here lasts not just eight weeks, but six months. The ground has to withstand a lot. Who doesn’t know the favorite excuse of the recreational player: place mistake! This makes it all the more important to prepare everything perfectly before the season. “Two people drive the wheelbarrows, three people distribute the sand with shovels, and one immediately smoothes it with the mat. This works particularly well when the brick dust is still fresh and dry.”explains Albert and brushes the red sand off his sweaty T-shirt. The groundskeepers, the unsung heroes of tennis.
In Monte Carlo, His Serene Highness Prince Albert II sits in the front row of his box, surrounded by his wife and cousin, and enjoys the final between Alcaraz and Sinner. He will soon present the trophy to the winner Sinner, in the middle of the square named after his father, Rainier III. There is also a course dedicated to his cousin, and his niece is president of the Monte Carlo Country Club. Without Albert II and his relatives nothing works and nothing works in Monaco.
The first big one Clay court tournament of the world
Without them there would probably be no clay court tennis today. It was Albert II’s great-grandfather who advocated for a tennis court to be built on the roof of the winery of the luxurious Hotel de Paris in 1897. Even back then, Monaco was a magnet for high society and tennis was a sport for the upper classes. Red slate sand was chosen as the surface because it was easier to maintain than grass, on which tennis was usually played at the time. In the same year, 150 players from all over Europe came together here and held the first Monte Carlo Championships. It was the first major clay court tournament in the world.
It’s Monday morning, Albert reads in the newspaper that Jannik Sinner has won the Monte Carlo Masters and thus his first major title on clay, while he is waiting in his groundskeeper’s house for the first recreational players of the season. The clubhouse would be saying too much, the changing rooms are rancid, the showers need to be cleaned. Not Albert’s thing. The season is about to start and the places are ready. A framed poster by Iga Swiatek with a dedication hangs in the hallway. In Polish it says: “For Albert, the best groundskeeper in the world”.
