Guillermo Coria - right decision?

[laurie]

Guillermo Coria has gone out of his comfort zone and come to Europe to play some indoor tournaments to try and improve his game. He hasn't done too well but I think its great to see him over here giving it a try. How do you feel about that? The wider issue for me is that there a lot of players seemingly playing on clay for almost 8 months of the year from January in South America and February through July and August in Switzerland, Austria and Sardinia, with the exception of Indian Wells and Miami which they have to play.

Would like to see more clay guys like Coria coming to Europe or going to America to play hardcourt events? Would that enhance the men's game or take away from it?

 

[pound cat]

It would enhance the game (and American tennis) if more American players went to European or S. American tournaments and learned to play on dirt. Sure would be nice for the US to have a couple of all-court players again.

 

[VamosRafa]

Guillermo Coria has gone out of his comfort zone and come to Europe to play some indoor tournaments to try and improve his game. He hasn't done too well but I think its great to see him over here giving it a try. How do you feel about that? The wider issue for me is that there a lot of players seemingly playing on clay for almost 8 months of the year from January in South America and February through July and August in Switzerland, Austria and Sardinia, with the exception of Indian Wells and Miami which they have to play.

Would like to see more clay guys like Coria coming to Europe or going to America to play hardcourt events? Would that enhance the men's game or take away from it?

Couple things going on, I think.

First, Coria and Nalbandian can command appearance fees. Which they likely got from the European events. They also are high ranked players, not so worried about rankings points. In other words, they don't have to worry about whether they will get into the main draw for the GS and Masters Events.

Many "claycourt players," especially those who are lower ranked, use claycourt events to boost their rankings, so they don't have to qualify for other hardcourt events.

I agree it is good for the higher ranked players, once they are established and don't have to worry about playing qualification rounds, to try to improve their results on all surfaces, not just on claycourts.

I know with respect to Nadal, he wanted to play in Europe these past weeks. He was scheduled to play in France (Marseille), but cancelled that, and went to South America (getting a wildcard for BA), because he was worried he wouldn't have enough rankings points to qualify for the claycourt Masters Events. He knew he'd play IW and Miami; he just didn't want to have to try to qualify for Monte Carlos, Roma and Hamburg.

And I'm sure many other players in South America right now have the same goal.

 

[BERDI4]

I don't know why but, unfortunately, the game is going each time more towards hard courts. Hard courts bring more injuries to knees and ankles.

 

[arosen]

Laurie, you pose an interesting question. Why would he play on hard, especially given his past injuries, instead of clay, where he rules (kind of) and hurts his body less? Hmm. Is he trying to prove something or does he honestly believe that he is good enough to hang with ljubicic, Ancic, Fed, JJ, TJ, Rod and the rest of the hard court demolition machines?
Vamos Rafa is probably right on, its about the appearance fees. Its all about the money. Those South America tourneys aint paying much and pointswise are low anyway. Europe, here comes Coria....

 

[Max G.]

Laurie, you pose an interesting question. Why would he play on hard, especially given his past injuries, instead of clay, where he rules (kind of) and hurts his body less? Hmm. Is he trying to prove something or does he honestly believe that he is good enough to hang with ljubicic, Ancic, Fed, JJ, TJ, Rod and the rest of the hard court demolition machines?

He is definitely good enough to hang with those guys on hardcourts. I figure that he wants to, well, get better on hardcourts so he can not only hang with them but also beat them. I'd guess that right now he's concentrating on getting his game to where he wants it to be more than on getting ranking points from all the lowly claycourt events that he knows he'll do well in anyway.