Tennis apparently used to be grass everywhere, but when tennis players in southern France tried to maintain grass courts the climate made it too difficult. So, instead they switched to clay.

What's interesting to me is the length of the grass. Apparently Wimbledon grass is 8mm long, whereas the Premier League uses grass that's up to 30mm long, but typically 20-22mm.

I would guess short grass probably plays similarly to clay and "hard surface". It would be interesting to see tennis on long grass.