So Rafa has been back playing for a week and a half, and whilst most tennis fans seem delighted that he's back (he WAS missed), I sense a few reservations and rumblings in the distant background......
That aside, what I've been staggered about is how strident and opinionated he's become about everything......and not necessarily in a good way.......Victor Meldrew meets Richard Littlejohn. So in the space of about a week we've had.
1. The ATP has got it completely wrong with the 25 second rule, which is unfair to spectators as it makes it harder for players to execute very long rallies and recover, and he hopes they will not apply it strongly (pressure, threat.......). Even Novak seems to have accepted the spirit of what the ATP has needed to do (mainly due to him and Rafa, although there are other culprits), and just got on with it.
2. The ATP doesn't care about players because it forces them to play too much on hard courts, which is bad for their knees and other joints. We should have more clay and grass tournaments. What? This at a time when most commentators have suggested we speed up the courts again, having seen a slowing down of courts generally over the last 10-15 years. Most players don't have significant knee problems like Rafa, and for most countries outside the Latin World 90% of courts are hardcourts. I hardly think the ATP chooses a somewhat hardcourt biased schedule becuase it doesn't care.
3. The court surface in Sao Paolo is unacceptable, with lumps, bumps and holes. Again he cited this as another example of the ATP not caring about players health.
4. The lines in Sao Paolo are scratchy and crumbling, again showing lack of respect for professional tennis players.
5. Apparently the balls in Sao Paolo aren't good enough either, because they are too light, like they have been bought in a supermarket, preventing players from having long rallies. He and his Uncle will be discussing this with tournament officials to get it fixed.
6. We need much more drug testing in the sport. He should be congratulated for backing up Roger, Andy and Novak, following their similar statements, although all 4 of them would know that if any of them DIDN'T say something like this, it would look much more suspicious than doing so. But they all did it, which is good.
I don't know what to make of Rafa now - attacking the ATP like this (especially where I would imagine the majority view amongst players is not in line with his) doesn't seem like a great idea.
Update: Maybe he's got a point on the courts - look at this!!!! How dangerous is that?
-- Edited by korriban on Thursday 14th of February 2013 10:27:49 AM
I haven't remotely missed him anyway. It's probably because he knows Djokovic and Murray are a level ahead of him on hard courts now and clearly that's not fair because it will be a lot harder for him to get back to number 1 where he obviously belongs. How dare they not play the majority of the year on clay.
Much more importantly for me, it will just be great for tennis, if not maybe always for Andy, to have Rafa back anywhere approaching his best. I'm certainly delighted to see him playing competitively again.
I think folk can notice a little self interest and his views won't be any determining factor. Might even encourage a few more views, which may be no bad thing.
Re the 25 second rule, I'm with many who have said make it 30 seconds and then enforce it more. I believe that was Djokovic's expressed opinion. I'd say at least be consistent through initial stages of warnings and then onto penalties.
He might well have a case re his opinions expressed re Sao Paulo, and there should be certtain standards for such a tournament. If they are anything like as far off these as Rafa indicates, then quite right to comment. Of course he would normally be playing in more familiar envinments.
Anyway, I hope he can get himself properly back, though there must clearly be some real doubts as to his longterm future. Not the greatest stylist, but great to have such a player in rhere in the mix. And as an individual he has always, I've thought, come across well, as distinct to the way Mr Federer can come across at times. And I absolutely love having Roger around as a tennis player.
Re the point korriban raises about the speed of tennis courts, yes I would be in favour of a bit of speeding up of some hard courts and of Wimbledon. Ironically, I believe most experts consider Roland Garros has speeded up a bit in recent years and in that respect may be not far off some non clay tournaments.
But not events speeded up too much to become a boom boom fest with few real rallies, certainly with players below the very top level. Wimbledon men's singles back before 2000 often did not really appeal much to me, and indeed I'd have current Roland Garros any time over that for watchable top tennis.
