Is Rafa ready to quit the Players' Council ??

There's an interesting article in The Times today (I'm a subscriber), which is suggesting that Rafa is ready to quit his role on the Players' Council today.

The article is copied below for your interest.

I think this is a radical move by Rafa, because he is very vocal in his opinions and is not shy in sharing them. I think he accepted that change - if any - would be slow amongst the ATP and that it probably wouldn't happen for him in his career. But un-deterred, he carried on for the sake of players in the future.

So it does make me wonder why now, Rafa would take such a decision to quit? None of us know what goes on behind the scenes, and none of us know how Rafa's views are supported or otherwise. But when you get players such as Feds going public that he thinks there's nothing wrong with the schedule as it is, and he and the PoD were both rather quiet when all the happenings at the US Open were going down (not on their watch, was it? So it didn't affect them). So you kind of think whether Rafa is actually fighting a losing battle.

Or like his decision to take a back seat from the Davis Cup, maybe he just feels for once, that it should be all about him and his career. Who knows? And whilst Rafa has been particularly vocal about hardcourts and the impact they have upon the body, I don't think it correct for the article to state that he has called for more clay court tournaments. Never have I seen him say that and I don't particularly like the self serving inference - remember, any changes would only truly impact upon future players.

But I'm sure that whatever the outcome from today, he will have taken his time on the Council seriously and served it well.

Here's the article ...

In a move that would further confirm the splits forming at the top of the men’s game, Rafael Nadal is considering his position as a vice-president of the ATP Player Council and may choose to step down today.

The first player meeting of the year in a Melbourne hotel tonight is set to become a defining moment in Brad Drewett’s attempt to build a consensus at the start of his tenure as the executive chairman of the ATP World Tour.

Nadal, the world No 2 who has served three years as a voice for his fellow players, went public last year, calling for men’s tennis to adopt a ranking system based on results over two years, rather than one, as a means of offering those who might suffer a long-term injury a better opportunity to protect their position in the game. He has also expressed firm views on a need for there to be more tennis played on clay to reduce injuries and a shortening of the season.

“I’m not the only one who likes the two-year ranking,” Nadal said, pointing to the almost unanimous support from his fellow players when they were canvassed at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London in November. “There are many other players who also do and the two-year ranking has a clear [plus] side, which is to protect all players, not just the top ones. It’s a protection for the players who are injured that will not last until the end of their careers.

“It’s true that when you get injured today, with the one-year ranking you can go up faster, but you also have to come back from No 700 in the world, like what happened to [Juan Martín] Del Potro.”

Even with a decent level of support, the idea is unlikely to become ATP policy and Nadal does not want to have to spend more time in the next couple of years pressing political points when he wants to concentrate all his endeavours on playing.

If he does decide to quit his position, the pressures on Drewett, the Australian who reached a career-high No 34 in singles during his playing career, will intensify less than two weeks into his role. Drewett took over from Adam Helfant, the former Nike executive, the ATP having at first wanted Ian Ritchie, the former chief executive of the All England Club, who has joined the Rugby Football Union, to take on the position. Nadal was a supporter of Ritchie, but the tournaments, with whom the players share a 50-50 stake in the running of the governing body, felt that he had too close an allegiance with Wimbledon and declined to support him.

If Drewett is seen as a compromise candidate, he cannot compromise too much. There are many decisions that need to be taken, not least over the calendar, a thorny issue that has not been squarely faced for too long. The mood of his first meeting may turn out to be decidedly acidic.

Gavin Forbes, one of the tournament representatives on the ATP Board and a senior vice-president of IMG Tennis, which has a decisive stake in the sport, was one of the first to endorse Drewett. “Brad has the perfect combination of proven business abilities and understanding of player and tournament perspectives to oversee the growth of the ATP,” he said. “He has been an integral part of the Tour’s success over the last decade and will be able to get straight to work in January thanks to his deep relationships within the sport.”

It is, evidently, not going to take long for those relationships to be tested.