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发帖数: 1741 | 1 Rafael Nadal shouldn't be whining about not having clay courts at the ATP
World Tour Finals
Spain's Rafael Nadal leaves the court following his defeat against Serbia's
Novak Djokovic at the end of their men's quarter final match of the Roland
Garros 2015 French Tennis Open in Paris on June 3, 2015. AFP PHOTO / KENZO
TRIBOUILLARDKENZO TRIBOUILLARD/AFP/Getty Images ORG XMIT: 534885877 ORIG
FILE ID: 541300324
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By: Chris Chase | November 11, 2015 5:07 pm
Rafael Nadal doesn’t tend to complain, unless the subject is on the length
of the tennis season (a worthy cause). But in an interview this week with
Britain’s Daily Mail ahead of next week’s year-end ATP World Tour Finals,
Nadal came off as fairly whiny in expressing his dissatisfaction that the
Finals have been played on indoor hard courts since he started qualifying
for them in 2006. He, obviously, would prefer clay.
The world No. 5 told Stuart Fraser:
“I believe that it’s not fair that a player like me really never
played on a surface that was a little bit more favourable. I always played
on the worst surface possible for me.
“If it’s indoor at the 02, then great, but you can build a different
type of surface there. It is a fantastic place to organise a World Tour
Finals. The atmosphere is just amazing and I am very happy it is there. I
enjoy it every time I have had the chance to be there, but we can play on
clay there too.”
(AP)
(AP)
Cue exaggerated eye-roll.
Rafael Nadal is a sublime tennis player on any surface — one of the best in
the history of the sport. But on clay he’s otherworldly, better than
Jordan in his prime, perhaps equal to Tiger in his, though doing so in an
eight-year stretch that will never be touched. (Nadal has separate winning
streaks of 31 and 39 at the French Open and has taken home nine titles. He
once won 81 straight matches on the surface. I could go on and on.)
But through all that, Nadal’s has been aided by the ATP giving clay-court
tennis an elevated level of importance as compared to hard, grass and indoor
courts. Don’t get me wrong, the guy has won five Slams off of his favorite
surface, so it’s not like he’s a slouch off clay. But if anyone shouldn’
t be complaining about how many important tournaments are on clay, it’s
Nadal.
(Getty Images)
(Getty Images)
When in 1990 the ATP introduced a set of “Masters” events that were one
step below a Grand Slam, three of those nine events were designated to be
played on clay. Now called the Masters 1000 (referring to the amount of
rankings points up for grabs), the competitions in Monte Carlo, Madrid and
Rome generate a full one-third of the tournaments and, again, are all on
clay. Nadal has won the most of these Masters events in history (27) —
Djokovic is hot on his heels with 26 — and that’s thanks to 19 titles in
those clay events.
A tennis season essentially last 11 months. It has a dedicated two-month
clay season, which is 18% of the year. Yet 29% of big tournaments (four
Slams, nine 1000 events, WTF) are on clay. As has been mentioned hundreds of
times before, the argument is not that clay is given short shrift, it’s
that the ATP overemphasizes clay. There’s no Masters 1000 event on grass
courts, for instance, something that would greatly benefitted Roger Federer
in his prime and Novak Djokovic (as well as Federer) now. Yet there’s three
on clay.
Monte Carlo. (AP)
Monte Carlo. (AP)
Fair? Who’s to say. Europe is the tennis hotbed so it makes sense to put
big tournaments there, where clay is often a favored surface. But the idea
that Nadal, who has never won the World Tour Finals and has only made the
finals twice, is somehow getting the short end because the year’s final
event is played on an indoor hard court (and one that’s not particularly
fast, something that would also help Federer and Djokovic, in that order) is
preposterous. | s***i
发帖数: 6149 | 2 chris chase 是most hated blogger in america,看他的文章浪费生命。。 | b*****n
发帖数: 17570 | | b******n
发帖数: 1629 | 4 nadal号召年终总决赛场地轮流来，我觉得是合理的，并且，他应该很清楚这事就算要
办，他也是轮不上的，别人是真心的为网球好。年终总决赛本来就应该轮流来，否则叫
什么年终总决赛啊，还不如改名叫今年最后一项室内赛好了。
【在 b*****n 的大作中提到】
: 晚了，现在就算改红土丫也没戏了
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