Novak Djokovic, other players unhappy with court conditions in Rome

Players are criticizing the court conditions in Rome this week, particularly the tournament's second stadium, the NextGen Arena.

Play has been stopped on the court to repair holes, and second seed Novak Djokovic confirmed that players were unhappy with the surface. He added that the stadium court, where he played his opening match, has dropped in quality from a year or two ago.

"I don't know how NextGen Arena is with the conditions of the court, but I heard not many positive comments about that,” Djokovic told reporters in Rome. “Center court also is not as good as it was.”

The Serb added that such problems tended to arise on the stadium courts in Rome because of lack of play before the tournament.

"Clay is [a] very delicate surface,” he said. “In order to get it in the proper state, in order for it to have that solid ground, you need to play at least three months on the court before the tournament starts. It needs to be played more or less regularly, every day. But, you know, unfortunately, traditionally, we have these kind of issues with courts in Rome. The grounds men are doing their best.

"Nice guys, trying their best. But once a tournament starts there is not much you can do about the court ... The court's foundation has to be built months and months before the tournament starts, and as I understand, they don't play much tennis on the center court, and neither on the NextGen Court.

"But as I understand, they play only, you know, three, four, five weeks before the tournament, and they don't play regularly. You can't expect to have a good court in that way."

This has led to concerns about players injuring themselves. Rafael Nadal won his opening round on Centre Court on Wednesday when Nicolas Almagro, playing in the stadium, suffered a knee injury and retired down 3-0. It has not been established that the court had any role in Almagro's injury.

"The manner of his injury was not positive," said Nadal, who did note that the clay on the stadium court was not substandard.

Both players have won the tournament multiple times— Djokovic is a four-time champion in Rome, while Nadal is a seven-time champion. They are No. 2 and No. 4 in the rankings, respectively.