And hasn’t this been getting everybody into a tizz?
“I think hard courts are the worst for the body … they are very hard for all the joints, ankles, back, knees. And this is not a player issue, it’s a medical issue … I think the ATP has to think about how to elongate tennis players’ careers. I don’t imagine football players playing on cement, I don’t imagine other sports with aggressive movements playing on such aggressive surfaces. I think we’re the only sport in world that makes this mistake, and it looks like it’s not going to change for now. It’s not only about what happens during your career, but about what happens after, how your body ends up after your career. The ATP doesn’t seem to worry about the players too much, but it should … [be concerned] about the years following a player’s career. Competing so much on hard courts, the only thing we achieve is that, maybe, when our careers are over, it’s very difficult to continue to practice sport. I don’t know how I’ll end up when I finish, and I like to practice sports ... Tennis is beautiful, and important, but life is much more so … so it would be nice to be able to continue to do what one likes to do after one’s career. For me it would be nice to be able to keep playing football or tennis for recreation, and the way things are going now, I don’t know if I’ll be able to do so in good conditions.”
I mean quelle horreur!! Rafael Nadal is back on the press conference treadmill with the same, boring, banal, blah-blah-blah questions being levelled at him and I faint in jaw dropping shock that he’s proffered the same response on the interminable question of hardcourts.
How do people think he’s going to respond to these questions? Do they seriously think that based on his own experience, he’s going to move away from the opinions that he’s formed and expressed on many an occasion before? But stop gilding the lily and conveniently glossing over the fact that whilst Rafa has called for change, he has repeatedly stated that nothing will ever change during his playing lifetime. Rather than listen to what he is actually saying, they're too busy puffing themselves up in their mock indignation that he's calling for a change to be introduced into the Tour that benefits him the most; “… and it looks like it’s not going to change for now” – was punctuated in his statement of yesterday. "When I say this, I think about the best for the players and for the future." was what he said back in 2009 at the Australian Open. Or did people not notice that?
Self serving and disingenuous when there’s not a chance that anything is ever going to change during his career?? Blimey, the bloke’s just been asked a question in a press conference, he gives his view based on personal experience to illustrate his point and immediately the knives are out.
I wonder what Pere Riba thinks, or Pablo Cuevas? Gael Monfils, Gilles Simon, John Isner, Fernando Verdasco, Philip Kohlschreiber, Tommy Robredo, Tommy Haas, Alexsandr Dolgopolov … to cite a few. I have no idea. And the reason I have no idea is that no journalist gives a monkey’s cuss about staking out one of their press conferences and wiring their comments around the world. Cos sorry boys … does anyone really care what you think?
I truly believe that Rafael Nadal loves the game of tennis as much as the next bloke. Or Roger Federer. And he has a view that hardcourts can hurt players and will continue to do so unless something is changed for the future. Whether that view is shared by the ATP, The Big Four Minus One, the Great and The Good and/or the Tennis Glitterati is by-the-by. It’s what Rafa thinks, he expresses the opinion when asked, and that is all. There’s no need for inflammatory headlines or launching the latest character assassination because a journalist leads him by asking a question in a press conference.
He knows he won’t be smelling of roses when he finishes his playing career, but it is with a genuine heart that I feel he persists in putting forward this view in case - by the slimmest of chances – it ever makes a difference for some players of the future.
[Rafa's comments in the press conference were translated by Bebe - so credit to her - and posted on Nadal News here.]
Exactly. Frankly, the journos are lucky that he doesn't decline to answer the same questions over and over. The unfairness of it all is ridiculous--as you say, no one else (except, on occasion, Roger) is ever asked about the surfaces. Because no one cares about the topic, they only care about getting a statement that will cause shock waves amongst the ostriches.
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