user: Question: What was the surface played on for the match than began before 1897?
Columns: ['Tournament', 'Country', 'Location', 'Current Venue', 'Began', 'Court surface']
Types: ['text', 'text', 'text', 'text', 'real', 'text']
Sample row: ['Indian Wells Masters', 'United States', 'Indian Wells', 'Indian Wells Tennis Garden', 1987.0, 'Hard']
SQL:

assistant: SELECT "Court surface" FROM "Table" WHERE "Began" < 1897.0;