Steve,
I wanted to know what you think of Nadal’s latest complaint, about there being too many hard-court tournaments, and not enough clay-court tournaments. It didn’t take him long to get back to whining about everything, did it? Don’t you think it’s bad for the sport to always be run down by a star, when he just wants more tournaments on his favorite surface?—George
It would be nice, I suppose, if Nadal were happy with everything in the game as it was. And, ideally, you don’t want to hear him “blasting,” as the headlines usually have it, his own tour each morning. But at the same time, would you rather have him not say what he thinks? The vast majority of the quotes you hear from him over the course of the year are answers to questions. Would it be better if he fabricated an answer or said “no comment”? For some, that's the way to do it, but that's not how Nadal says he likes to do things.
Last year at the French Open, Nadal was asked by USA Today’s Doug Robson about his philosophy when it comes to talking about injuries in public. Nadal said that he didn’t want to come into the interview room “and lie.” That’s generally how he deals with questions on various subjects, though there are definite exceptions, such as his presser after his loss to Lukas Rosol at Wimbledon, when he didn’t mention that his knees had been hurting.
The downside of this approach is, the more questions you’re asked, the better the chance is that you’ll sound like a broken record, an excuse-maker, or a terminal griper; and that’s what many non-Nadal fans seem to think of him. As far as court surfaces go, in the quotes from Brazil that I’ve seen, Nadal doesn’t say he wants to see more clay-court events specifically (though I’m sure he wouldn’t mind). He says that he objects to hard surfaces as opposed to softer ones.
“I find hard courts the worst for the body,” he said, “they’re the most harming for articulations, knees, backs...I don’t think a change to more clay and grass tournaments will be possible in my generation. The ATP needs to be more careful to prolong their players' careers.”
Maybe there were other quotes I missed, but this doesn’t sound like the King of Clay banging down his goblet and calling for “more clay!” He mentions clay and grass.
Hard courts have been around for a long time, for 100-odd years in California, and as Rafa seems to realize, they’re not going away any time soon. From my own experience, clay is easier on the body than asphalt, but the retired ATP champions I’ve seen recently were moving pretty well, and they spent most of their careers on hard courts. I think Rafa is half-right: Tennis could use more events on grass.