Mats Wilander suggests tennis officials help prolong Roger Federer’s career

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Deleted member 3771

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If it makes money it makes sense. Federer is a drawcard, so can't blame tournament directors for looking after the bottom line.

FORMER world No.1 Mats Wilander is under fire for promoting preferential treatment for Roger Federer.
Tennis fans on social media have condemned Wilander — a three-time Australian Open champion now commentating for Eurosport — as “short-sighted” and “irresponsible” for backing tournament bosses to prepare faster courts for the Swiss superstar.

“If I was a tournament director, I would speed up the court so Roger Federer can play for three or four more years. He is probably the best thing in professional sports,” Wilander said.

Grumblings of perceived favourable treatment for Federer reached fever pitch after Open directors opted to invoke the extreme heat policy and shut the retractable roof at Melbourne Park for Sunday night’s final.
 
MatsPhilander

MatsPhilander

Legend
So this tournament multiple former players are accusing the authorities of letting him choose when he plays his matches, closing the roof to give him the advantage, preparing fast courts for him-pathetic. In all likelihood the roof was closed because of the ladies final the day before when both players suffered & one of them ended up in hospital on a drip for dehydration-this from playing 3 sets as opposed to 5. Top players will always get preferential treatment over what court they play on & time they play-if the others want it then they need to start winning slams.
 
Kalin

Kalin

Legend
Rod Laver wasn't complaining. I'd take his opinion over that of Pat Cash any day and twice on a Sunday night in Melbourne.

And WIlander is right; Roger is the best thing to ever happen in tennis after cows decided to grow guts. Surfaces should be made faster.

And even if you don't like Roger, just look at the spate of injuries lately. Slow, high-abrasion courts are the worst thing for the joints. Next comes wet, heavy clay; Rafa and Novak both got injured on such a court some time ago. Reduce the number of those to protect the players; forget even about Roger. Ironically, his effortless style protects him even on such courts but there's little even he can do when the court eats up your serve and dulls your shots.
 
zagor

zagor

Bionic Poster
8Mmz0.gif



Never change Mats.
 
BGod

BGod

G.O.A.T.
And? Jordan & Gretzky got preferential treatment too.

Maybe if the next gen had upcoming stars who preferred slower courts? But the courts had been slowed down tremendously which gave advantage to Nadal in his prime years.

Faster courts will work better for Shapovalov who seems to have a chance at taking over. Dimitrov is a crowd pleaser too.

The tour doesn't care about Zverev nor should they. He has to break through himself.
 
Bartelby

Bartelby

Bionic Poster
We really need to bring back a stronger sense of the subjunctive.

Wilander is not stating a fact.

He is expressing a desire or wish he would have if he were a tournament director, which he is not.

So there is no factual evidence offered by him of any help being given by any tennis officials.
 
T

TMF

Talk Tennis Guru
If they want to help prolong Federer and all the players career then they should have kept the courts fast a long time ago rather than slowing them down for over a decade. There's no fast court today, only a few medium fast while vast majority are slow as molasses. The fact that Federer likes fast court because he excel in them is a testament of the ATP didn't do him any favor but quite the opposite. It's the grinder/defensive players with great endurance/stamina like Nadal who thrived on this slow condition.
 
Simon_the_furry

Simon_the_furry

Hall of Fame
Bartelby said:
We really need to bring back a stronger sense of the subjunctive.

Wilander is not stating a fact.

He is expressing a desire or wish he would have if he were a tournament director, which he is not.

So there is no factual evidence offered by him of any help being given by any tennis officials.
Click to expand...
Correct. However, that doesn't mean we shouldn't be peeved by it.
And Mats Wilander does have some influence, being among the sport's all time greats.
 
BeatlesFan

BeatlesFan

Bionic Poster
Wilander is right. The courts were hideously slowed down from 2003 onward, thus robbing Fed of countless slams. Nadal would never have gotten near a Wimbledon final had the grass stayed at its pre-2003 level. The USO last year was the dreariest USO in ages because it was played on a court index only slightly faster than the French Open. The USO is supposed to be played (and traditionally played) on a fast HC.
 
acintya

acintya

Legend
Wilander is so tender and soft when Federer is around that I start to think he would make love to him if Federer would allow it. He acts like 5 year old boy near some candyman.
 
Tommy Haas

Tommy Haas

Hall of Fame
I'm glad Wilander is calling a spade a spade. The grand slam tournaments are all about money. Fed favoritism Is real, but he's earned it. It's unfair to some, but that's professional sports.

I hope the court speeds remain varied because if they were all fast, it's less enjoyable for fans and I'm a big fan. It's really boring watching one-two shot tennis. The real problem is not the court speed, but the length of the matches.

If men played the best of 3 sets in the slams problems are reduced, or only play the best of 5 sets in the final. Also mandate tie breaks in the final set, allow lets and eliminate ad scoring.
 
T

Tennis_Hands

Banned
So Federer will get the heat for something that worked against his career basically from its very beginning just because Wilander is a half wit?

:cool:
 
Mainad

Mainad

Bionic Poster
acintya said:
Wilander is so tender and soft when Federer is around that I start to think he would make love to him if Federer would allow it. He acts like 5 year old boy near some candyman.
Click to expand...

If that's the case he's far from being the only one. ;)
 
Lendl and Federer Fan

Lendl and Federer Fan

Hall of Fame
Now you complain about speeding up the court, we are barely getting back to old court for AO after a decade of slow court to let nadal and clay court specialists and baseline bashers like djoker to win. It is a joke that a clay player like nadal could win wimbieton and usopen.

It was a conspiracy back then to slow down the courts when Federer was winning multi slams after 07 6 5.
 
J

justasport

Professional
Mats is eat up with envy and jealousy when it comes to Roger's greatness. It eats him alive, but yet he kisses Roger's ass during every interview just like most people in the tennis world kiss Roger's ass, lol.
 
Winners or Errors

Winners or Errors

Legend
The end of court homogenization will be welcomed by many. It will force the next great player to do something other than grind from the baseline if he wants to win during the entire year. It will return surface specialists who will be dangerous only at certain times of year. It will, of course, make it much harder to reach 20 slams.

I am not among those who believe that surface homogenization did not help Fed. There were definitely times when he could have been overpowered by a hot player on a faster court and it did not happen because of slow courts. Nadal and Djokovic would have been his "pigeons" on faster courts, but others would have caught him on different days and the records he has for consistency would be a lot closer to the others he has blown out of the water at this point.

Tennis has tried homogenization. Wilander is right. Speed up some of the courts. Maybe bring back carpet (and perhaps even wood for a single tournament). Leave the clay alone. Leave Wimbledon alone: it was, according to All England Club, about durability and groundskeeping costs and not necessarily about speed.

It's just about creating different surfaces and allowing for more variety in the game. What is boring about the game for me is the repetition. That's why I like Federer so much. It's why I like Kohli so much. They just have different games. Tennis is better when it's not dominated by a few...
 
T

Tennis_Hands

Banned
mental midget said:
speeding up the courts would help younger players make an impact more quickly, put less a priority on having to build yourself into a perpetual grinding machine to have any chance of winning a match.
Click to expand...

Truth.

It would have also allowed for deeper runs based on upsets and climbing faster in the rankings, building confidence as they grow up.

Instead they had to grind their way through the Ferrers of this world, which also contributed to completely different approach to training and playing styles, contributing factor to the injuries that are especially damaging at that age.

:cool:
 
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