Grant Cantin should have a prime vantage point from which to watch the world-class tennis players competing at the Olympic Games in London. But his attention will likely be focused on the ground beneath their feet.
Cantin is deputy head groundsman at the All England Lawn Tennis Club, which hosts the annual Wimbledon Tennis Championships and is providing the tennis venue for the Olympics.
A 2000 graduate of the Olds College’s turfgrass management program, the transplanted Albertan has been busy readying the grass courts — which took a pounding during Wimbledon, from June 25 to July 8 — for the start of Olympic play on Saturday.
“We’ve had two weeks to turn them around, and Roger Federer (the 2012 Wimbledon champ and world’s No. 1 ranked player) told me this morning they’re beautiful and they’re playing great,” said Cantin during a telephone interview on Monday.
He’d also spoken with former world No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt that morning, and had recent conversations with the likes of Wimbledon runner-up Andy Murray and rising Canadian star Milos Raonic.
“I talk to a lot of the players because they’re obviously the best guys to get feedback from. I know them all very well.”
Cantin and his crew received the ultimate compliment from Federer after this year’s Wimbledon tournament, when the seven-time champ observed that the courts were “too good.”
“In the last eight years, we’ve never had a complaint from any player during the championships,” said Cantin, who’s helped tend the courts for 11 years.
“Back even 10 years ago, the baseline area suffered wear quicker than it does now.”
What’s changed, he said, is the products and techniques used to maintain the lawn courts.
“It’s all science nowadays. It’s all readings and how we’re going to adjust it; how are we going to work around it.”
Still, the work is not easy. Cantin described how the clay soil must be carefully dried prior to use.
“If you dry it out too quick, the court will actually start to crack.”
The 41 courts at the All England Lawn Tennis Club tend to dry at different rates, he added, depending on location and other factors.
“They’re all living, breathing surfaces and we’ve got to try to get all the courts to play the same.”
The tennis lawns are reseeded annually, using a tough perennial ryegrass that’s popular in soccer stadiums. The surfaces are covered with semi-permeable germination sheets that retain heat and moisture, and discourage hungry pigeons. After several days, the sheets are removed and the courts monitored closely until the next tennis season.
Cantin is from Stony Plain, but his mother grew up in Red Deer as Lorianne Quirt and was even named Miss Red Deer in 1967.
An enthusiastic golfer as a teen, Cantin was impressed at how greenskeepers were able to keep the putting surfaces so immaculate and true. When he learned about the Olds College turfgrass program, he decided to enrol.
After graduating in 2000, Cantin and a couple roommates travelled to Australia for a bit of adventure. Two of them found employment at The Lakes Golf Club in Sydney — site of the 2011 Australian Open.
When a couple of British workers there described how they’d helped tend the Wimbledon courts, Cantin decided to apply for a job there. He moved to London soon after.
“I fell in love with the place on Day 1.”
Despite the differences between golf turf and tennis turf — the golf variety is kept much shorter and has a sandy base that helps absorb a ball’s impact — there are also many similarities.
Cantin said he has learned a lot from the grounds staff at the All England Lawn Tennis Club, but never really embraced the game that their work supports.
“I don’t really play, so I’m pretty awful at it.”
Instead, Cantin has retained his Canadian appetite for hockey — although it was slim pickings this winter after ESPN stopped broadcasting National Hockey League games.
“On weekends, I’d actually get up at 3 in the morning and stream the Oiler games.”
Cantin is pleased, however, to see Canadian Football League games being broadcast in London for the first time in five years.
He travels to Alberta at least once a year to visit family and friends, and hopes to soon visit his alma mater.
“I’ve talked to the guy running the turf program now at Olds College (Dave Moroz) and he’d like to meet up at some stage.”
Cantin has kept in touch with many of his former classmates.
“One of them actually is living with me — the guy I went to Australia with. He’s actually come over and worked here this summer.
“It’s great having him back here. It’s just like college again.”
hrichards@www.reddeeradvocate.com