Get rid of the Madrid Masters!

Benhur · 05-09-2012, 05:12 AM

I never thought this tournament made much sense in the clay season as a lead up to RG, because the altitude made it too different. Now with the introduction of dyed clay and its very different characteristics, it's even worse. And the slippery conditions are a serious problem.

Besides that, I’ve always thought this whole Caja Mágica design, the models acting as ballgirls and so on, were insufferably poshlost material. They even use blue toilet paper! http://www.europapress.es/chance/mod...507163517.html

Maybe one of the few positve outcomes of the financial crisis ravaging Spain will be the disappearance of this ugly tournament. Bring back Hamburg, or promote Estoril or Barcelona or some other real clay tourament at sea level to Master 1000 status. But please get rid of this abomination.

Here are some comments I’ve seen by players.

http://www.tennis.com/articles/templ...rticleid=17554
Almagro:
"I've always been very clear. The place of a [Masters] 1,000 is to prepare for Roland Garros ... you cannot do what was done," Almagro told reporters. "The courts are sliding a lot. It's a different, unique surface that isn’t used in any other tournament. It’s so close to Roland Garros that we prefer to play on red clay. The court is not in the best condition. You slip a lot and hopefully there will be no injuries. To [stay upright] on the court you need to make a real effort. But Ion Tiriac and Manolo Santana wanted have a blue court blue and there we have it. They, in favor of the show, wanted this court and we have to comply."

http://www.tennis-x.com/xblog/2012-05-08/9492.php
Djokovic:
“To me that’s not tennis. Either I come out with football shoes or I invite Chuck Norris to advise me how to play on this court,” said Djokovic to the AP. “Center court is impossible to move on. I hit five balls throughout the whole match. With everything else, I was just trying to keep the ball in the court.”

“When you slide on the red clay you have a feeling you can stop and recover from that step. But here, whatever you do … you are always slipping,” he continued. “Not a single player — not woman not man — I didn’t hear anyone say ‘I like blue clay.’”

Del Potro:
http://www.prensa.com/uhora/deportes...bala-mas/90691
"Yo la siento igual de rápida que todos los años. Lo que también siento es que es más difícil correr y que resbala mucho. Por momentos tiene mucha tierra y en otros lados no.” [The court seems to me as fast as in previous years. But I also feel it’s harder to run on it, it's very slippery. In some parts there is a lot of clay, and in other parts there isn’t.]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/ten...d-Masters.html
Ivo Karlovic, a sardonic Croatian with a large Twitter following, derided them as “something smurfs would play on”. The world’s top-ranked woman, Victoria Azarenka, complained on Sunday that “the bounce is different, the movement is different … it’s just 100 per cent different.”

Meanwhile, the issue of player safety had popped up earlier that afternoon when Caroline Wozniacki fell and ricked her ankle during a hard-fought three set win over Ksenia Pervak. After the match, Wozniacki admitted that she had found the surface “slippery”.
It is the nature of sportsmen and women to be super-sensitive about their office environment. A malfunctioning computer can waste your morning’s work, but a ridge in a tennis court might spell the end of a career.
The blue clay courts are built from crushed brick, just like the orange ones, except that the material has been stripped of its iron oxide (the chemical that provides the original colour) and then treated with dye. It was inevitable that the process would change the way they behave.
Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, the two best clay-court players in the world, have been lambasting Tiriac’s decision for some time – both for its potentially disruptive effects and for its unilateralism. And now that the event has actually started, the rank and file have joined in, with the reliably outspoken Sergiy Stakhovsky tweeting that “I can say with full responsibility on my shoulders that it is the worst court of @ATPWorldTour.”
It would be easy to paint the players as whingeing prima donnas, who would block any attempts to change the game on principle. But then they are dedicated to excellence – they wouldn’t be here at a Masters Series tournament if they weren’t – and this surface is clearly not the best way to prepare for the clay-court finale at Roland Garros.
Neither is it making much of an impact on the TV companies. “I thought the visual contrast would be stronger,” said Mark Petchey, a commentator with Sky Sports. “I know the surface is getting the tournament talked about but I still feel it has been an own goal, because the top players – particularly the top men – have not come on board. If Tiriac carries on down this path next year, he can expect some high-profile absentees. I’ll be staggered if we’re not back to red clay in 12 months’ time.”

Apun94 · 05-09-2012, 05:39 AM

So, what's your point? Get rid of the whole tournament altogether (which I just don't agree) or just get rid of the blue clay (red clay is so much better)?

Benhur · 05-09-2012, 05:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Apun94

So, what's your point? Get rid of the whole tournament altogether (which I just don't agree) or just get rid of the blue clay (red clay is so much better)?

Get rid of the whole thing, at least at this time of year. If you are going to have a clay season leading to Roland Garros, it doesn’t make sense to have a major tournament in it that is so radically different from the others due to altitude and (now) differences in the clay itself. If they want to keep it, put it in the post-USO season as a laboratory Masters tournament to experiment with new surfaces. But not in the month of May!

TheF1Bob · 05-09-2012, 05:41 AM

Get rid of Monte Carlo and Barcelona. Just change the surface back to it's original form and you'll good to go. Madrid and Rome should be the only two big tournaments leading to Roland Garros.

Boricua · 05-09-2012, 07:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheF1Bob

Get rid of Monte Carlo and Barcelona. Just change the surface back to it's original form and you'll good to go. Madrid and Rome should be the only two big tournaments leading to Roland Garros.

Nadal loves Monte Carlo. He will disagree with you on this one.

Boricua · 05-09-2012, 07:23 AM

Players should be heard. Tiriac will have to go back to RED.

Sentinel · 05-09-2012, 06:17 AM

What does The Exalted One have to say about the court ?

Frying Pan Forehand · 05-09-2012, 06:22 AM

better get rid of OP from this forums.

Evan77 · 05-09-2012, 06:26 AM

lol at that Chuck Norris comment. Novak is hilarious, hahaha

05-09-2012, 06:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Evan77

lol at that Chuck Norris comment. Novak is hilarious, hahaha

Djok is very much in touch with internet forums, I see. That one was like an in joke. I have no doubt he also reads tt.

Satch · 05-09-2012, 06:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 1970CRBase

Djok is very much in touch with internet forums, I see. That one was like an in joke. I have no doubt he also reads tt.

Chuck Norris is a phenomenon in Serbia.

marc45 · 05-09-2012, 08:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Evan77

lol at that Chuck Norris comment. Novak is hilarious, hahaha

i was impressed, i know novak is an aware guy, but how in the hell does he know chuck norris, does serbia get reruns of his old tv show?

DjokovicForTheWin · 05-09-2012, 06:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Benhur

the players as whingeing prima donnas, who would block any attempts to change the game on principle.

The only accurate part in all of that.

Bartelby · 05-09-2012, 06:32 AM

All I can say is that the Blue Clay is bigger than Ben Hur.

Benhur · 05-09-2012, 08:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bartelby

All I can say is that the Blue Clay is bigger than Ben Hur.

As a galley slave, Ben Hur pulled the oar in the big blue sea until he collapsed of exhaustion. Tiriac pulls shady strings to create little carnival shows with blue powder.

bluetrain4 · 05-09-2012, 06:32 AM

Is the court slippery/poor court condition a result of it being blue, or is it simply a slippery/poor court which they happened to dye blue?

I understand that players may have objections to the blue regardless, but I ask because I've heard others say that the Madrid courts had problems before they were blue. Or is it both -- they were poor before and the process of making them blue made them worse (in terms of true playability, not just color which annoys the players?)

Gorecki · 05-09-2012, 06:50 AM

Cool Starry Bra

Blinkism · 05-09-2012, 06:48 AM

This blue thing is great. Really great. Like, so really, really great, guys.

It's amazing. It's like being wrapped up in a warm blue blanket all the time and having all the blue ice cream you could want and everyone is so nice and friendly, oh wow, blue is so great. This is so good!

Thank goodness they keep handing out these special blue pills here in Madrid. It's so much fun, guys!!

everything should be blue, all the time! BLUE!!!

Blinkism · 05-09-2012, 06:50 AM

Feeling blue, Gorecki?

Gorecki · 05-09-2012, 07:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blinkism

Feeling blue, Gorecki?

Never. i adopted the Nadal fans strategy and i never get blue these days. i look at a Nadal sweaty photo and either i look happy or with a gun im my pocket!!

however, i do see that you still have not lost the good old Canadian sense of humour.

after all, how can one lose what one never had?

05-09-2012, 05:12 AM	#1
Benhur Hall Of Fame Join Date: Apr 2007 Posts: 2,478	Get rid of the Madrid Masters! I never thought this tournament made much sense in the clay season as a lead up to RG, because the altitude made it too different. Now with the introduction of dyed clay and its very different characteristics, it's even worse. And the slippery conditions are a serious problem. Besides that, I’ve always thought this whole Caja Mágica design, the models acting as ballgirls and so on, were insufferably poshlost material. They even use blue toilet paper! http://www.europapress.es/chance/mod...507163517.html Maybe one of the few positve outcomes of the financial crisis ravaging Spain will be the disappearance of this ugly tournament. Bring back Hamburg, or promote Estoril or Barcelona or some other real clay tourament at sea level to Master 1000 status. But please get rid of this abomination. Here are some comments I’ve seen by players. http://www.tennis.com/articles/templ...rticleid=17554 Almagro: "I've always been very clear. The place of a [Masters] 1,000 is to prepare for Roland Garros ... you cannot do what was done," Almagro told reporters. "The courts are sliding a lot. It's a different, unique surface that isn’t used in any other tournament. It’s so close to Roland Garros that we prefer to play on red clay. The court is not in the best condition. You slip a lot and hopefully there will be no injuries. To [stay upright] on the court you need to make a real effort. But Ion Tiriac and Manolo Santana wanted have a blue court blue and there we have it. They, in favor of the show, wanted this court and we have to comply." http://www.tennis-x.com/xblog/2012-05-08/9492.php Djokovic: “To me that’s not tennis. Either I come out with football shoes or I invite Chuck Norris to advise me how to play on this court,” said Djokovic to the AP. “Center court is impossible to move on. I hit five balls throughout the whole match. With everything else, I was just trying to keep the ball in the court.” “When you slide on the red clay you have a feeling you can stop and recover from that step. But here, whatever you do … you are always slipping,” he continued. “Not a single player — not woman not man — I didn’t hear anyone say ‘I like blue clay.’” Del Potro: http://www.prensa.com/uhora/deportes...bala-mas/90691 "Yo la siento igual de rápida que todos los años. Lo que también siento es que es más difícil correr y que resbala mucho. Por momentos tiene mucha tierra y en otros lados no.” [The court seems to me as fast as in previous years. But I also feel it’s harder to run on it, it's very slippery. In some parts there is a lot of clay, and in other parts there isn’t.] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/ten...d-Masters.html Ivo Karlovic, a sardonic Croatian with a large Twitter following, derided them as “something smurfs would play on”. The world’s top-ranked woman, Victoria Azarenka, complained on Sunday that “the bounce is different, the movement is different … it’s just 100 per cent different.” Meanwhile, the issue of player safety had popped up earlier that afternoon when Caroline Wozniacki fell and ricked her ankle during a hard-fought three set win over Ksenia Pervak. After the match, Wozniacki admitted that she had found the surface “slippery”. It is the nature of sportsmen and women to be super-sensitive about their office environment. A malfunctioning computer can waste your morning’s work, but a ridge in a tennis court might spell the end of a career. The blue clay courts are built from crushed brick, just like the orange ones, except that the material has been stripped of its iron oxide (the chemical that provides the original colour) and then treated with dye. It was inevitable that the process would change the way they behave. Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, the two best clay-court players in the world, have been lambasting Tiriac’s decision for some time – both for its potentially disruptive effects and for its unilateralism. And now that the event has actually started, the rank and file have joined in, with the reliably outspoken Sergiy Stakhovsky tweeting that “I can say with full responsibility on my shoulders that it is the worst court of @ATPWorldTour.” It would be easy to paint the players as whingeing prima donnas, who would block any attempts to change the game on principle. But then they are dedicated to excellence – they wouldn’t be here at a Masters Series tournament if they weren’t – and this surface is clearly not the best way to prepare for the clay-court finale at Roland Garros. Neither is it making much of an impact on the TV companies. “I thought the visual contrast would be stronger,” said Mark Petchey, a commentator with Sky Sports. “I know the surface is getting the tournament talked about but I still feel it has been an own goal, because the top players – particularly the top men – have not come on board. If Tiriac carries on down this path next year, he can expect some high-profile absentees. I’ll be staggered if we’re not back to red clay in 12 months’ time.”

05-09-2012, 05:41 AM	#4
TheF1Bob Legend Join Date: Dec 2011 Location: Leicester Posts: 5,713	Get rid of Monte Carlo and Barcelona. Just change the surface back to it's original form and you'll good to go. Madrid and Rome should be the only two big tournaments leading to Roland Garros. __________________ Les Misérables Scandal - Novak Djokovic was screwed by one Pascal Maria. Novak Djokovic is our rightful champion.

05-09-2012, 06:50 AM	#17
Gorecki G.O.A.T. Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Puerto y Galgo.... Posts: 12,294	Cool Starry Bra __________________ #1 Nadal fan : Surfaces are perfect the way they are. Funny how every time Fed loses, the surface is at fault. How about: the player is at fault?

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