Nadal criticizes changes in ATP schedule

[Benhur]

http://www.sportsya.com/english/new...nges_in_schedule.html?id_estruc=283&id=175286

Rafael Nadal is happy for having taken the first win for Spain in Davis Cup tie against Germany, highlighted how much this tournament means for him, and criticized the changes in ATP schedule, which he called them "nonsense

"To be honest, ATP authorities make our life miserable. These changes delay AMS Miami and Indian Wells one week because of the 'Basketball College', even though I respect that decision because it is important for them. But let us play anyway!", Nadal said.

"The fact that a tennis world tour depends much on the American 'Basketball College' is absolute nonsense. We have to play four straight weeks, we have just three AMS on clay and, to top it all, we must play all of them in just four weeks, in addition to a major tournament like Barcelona. It’s crazy for all the European players and players specialized in clay", world-ranked no. 2 added.

"I’m fed up with saying the same thing over and over, but it seems ATP authorities have another perspective, so I have to respect that". Nadal insisted on stating how much it means for him to play Davis Cup despite it affects his personal career

"Playing Davis Cup is something special because you play for your country and for your teammates, that makes it so special. I’ve been there as much as I could and I’ll be there throughout my career. Yet, I think some changes must been made in order to make more fans get more interested in the tournament, and the players get more motivation to be part of it. This is so because the schedule is a mess".

Still, he feels glad for his win over Nicolas Kiefer despite the tiredness for such a long stay in the United States. "I feel more tired than usual, I could feel it on the court", the player born in Manacor, Mallorca, explained.

"It’s been tough, but I could win anyway. It’s a pity I couldn’t make profit of the break point chance in seven times. I’ve played fine, I guess", Nadal said about his match against Kiefer, who lost to him twice in just one week.

"The first set was a battle, the one who lose it would never recover from the shock; then I managed to improve a little in the second set since I made profit of Kiefer’s falling apart", Nadal remarked.

 

[flyer]

I completely understand his perspective and I think he makes some great, great points and valid arguments for them, ATP aside though if hes tired that is bad, he better not play either barcelona or Hamburg if he wants to be 100% going into the Fench

 

[vince916]

Should of kept with the regular schedule since the coverage was still horrible when they delayed it a week.

 

[Nadal_Freak]

ATP Tour really screwed Nadal this year. I think Nadal had a shot for number 1 but thanks to the schedule, it might not happen. Nadal needs to withdraw from Barcelona and tank at Hamburg. Stop complaining and just make sure you're 100% for the French Open.

 

[tzinc]

The problem is he's great on clay so he has to play those

 

[vndesu]

ATP Tour really screwed Nadal this year. I think Nadal had a shot for number 1 but thanks to the schedule, it might not happen. Nadal needs to withdraw from Barcelona and tank at Hamburg. Stop complaining and just make sure you're 100% for the French Open.

how did they screw him over?
did he not have the choice to go to the tournament or not?
all i hear is excuses

 

[Rataplan]

did he not have the choice to go to the tournament or not?
all i hear is excuses

All you want to hear is that it's an excuse perhaps but take a step back and look at it. Nadal has a point and has enough reason to be pissed off about it.

The fact is that he shouldn't have to make such tough choices but he's forced to do so thanks to an overcrowded, crappy clay court schedule and for what? American TV networks dictating the ATP schedule and letting College basketball in the US have an influence over the entire tennis schedule. Who cares what happens to the clay court season anyway? Most American players suck at it or don't achieve much on it anyway so that works out even better for them. No wonder Roddick defends this De Villiers clown.

The ATP has lost a lot of money in the dispute with Hamburg and I hope that those lawyers keep going and make them bleed for it. It's time that mr. Disney & co learn to THINK (with the best interest of all the players in mind) before ACTING or else PAY for it in hard cash.

The ATP schedule is more about money than about what's in the best interest of all the players.

 

[coloskier]

The ATP schedule is more about money than about what's in the best interest of all the players.

And it always will be. An unfortunate fact of life in the sporting world. It always will be about money.

 

[zagor]

He's right to critize them,I completely agree with him.He should have a fair chance to earn as much points as possible on his favourite surface,messing up the claycourt season because of American college basketball is a complete joke.I personally don't care that much about claycourt tennis but this is very unfair to claycourt specialists,they earn their bread on clay.

 

[daddy]

I am amased someone gave this thread a one star ? So he is not correct to criticise the ATP for this ? What real tennis fan would give one star to the thread talking about how tennis is not apreciated enough in states ?

The man is correct, he has to play 4 tourneys in 4 weeks to defend his points and thus he will have a possible 20 matches in 28 days, having in mind we are talking about Nadal it is very probable that he will play no less than 18 or 19.

 

[flyer]

how did they screw him over?
did he not have the choice to go to the tournament or not?
all i hear is excuses

How did they screw him over?!?! They crammed 3 masters series, which he has a final and 2 championships to defend, and one high level tourny championship to defend, basically he as to play everyday for a month strait to defend his points and then be expected to be 100% to defend his FO title, thats how they screwed him over, its not an excuse, it is completely unreasonable and ridiculously unfair, you you cant see that your an idiot. Of course he has a choice but the tournaments should be scheduled so that a player can have adequate preparation and recovery time, as they were in the past, and now because of March Madness he is at an extreme disadvantage...what if they crammed Cinci, Canada, Miami, and Dubai into four weeks then said ok Roger go play the USO. You get the point...

 

[rafan]

I am amased someone gave this thread a one star ? So he is not correct to criticise the ATP for this ? What real tennis fan would give one star to the thread talking about how tennis is not apreciated enough in states ?

The man is correct, he has to play 4 tourneys in 4 weeks to defend his points and thus he will have a possible 20 matches in 28 days, having in mind we are talking about Nadal it is very probable that he will play no less than 18 or 19.

Pretty sickened by the way tennis is not appreciated worldwide. Rafa does have a point and the fact he had to "accommodate" another sport really annoys me. If it was not for the internet, some tennis match results would be limited to a few miserable lines in the morning paper after the horse racing results - just cannot believe it!

 

[Nadal_Freak]

How did they screw him over?!?! They crammed 3 masters series, which he has a final and 2 championships to defend, and one high level tourny championship to defend, basically he as to play everyday for a month strait to defend his points and then be expected to be 100% to defend his FO title, thats how they screwed him over, its not an excuse, it is completely unreasonable and ridiculously unfair, you you cant see that your an idiot. Of course he has a choice but the tournaments should be scheduled so that a player can have adequate preparation and recovery time, as they were in the past, and now because of March Madness he is at an extreme disadvantage...what if they crammed Cinci, Canada, Miami, and Dubai into four weeks then said ok Roger go play the USO. You get the point...

Well said.

 

[jmsx521]

If the ATP has the authority, then why don't they spread the Masters' series evenly across the calendar? Do they have the authority... how does it work?

 

[Aabye]

I think the ATP does have the authority, and this year they used it to move the MS closer together rather than farther apart.

The reason for the change is touched upon in the original article. They wanted coverage of the events in IW and Miami and, because of the Final Four, couldn't get it if they didn't jostle the schedule.

So they had the brilliant idea of squeezing all of the major claycourt events into 4 weeks. Which is a bad idea on the surface and a worse idea when you look at underlying factors like how it affects a player like Nadal.

Now, it isn't their job to cater to any one player, but it also isn't fair to try to make someone defend all their points from the previous year after screwing around with the amount of recovery time they have.

 

[tzinc]

This again shows what a CLASS player Nadal is and how the Nadal-haters are out to lunch! It's hurting him to play for his country BUT HE'S DOING IT. What you call excuses are in fact an example of him NOT using excuses but getting out there and DOING IT!

 

[edberg505]

Hmm, why is he the only one complaining? Surely other people are affected by this change as well.

 

[Nadal_Freak]

Hmm, why is he the only one complaining? Surely other people are affected by this change as well.

Most players don't get to the Finals of every tournament.

 

[ninman]

Most players don't get to the Finals of every tournament.

I think in a way Federer will be happy about this, because he knows that he's now basically guaranteed to be number 1 until the French Open. Even Nadal can't win 4 tournaments in 4 weeks on clay. It also means he might get a chance to add Monte Carlo and Rome to his collection and potentially beat Nadal again on clay.

 

[xxxabc123xxx]

Is this done through a traslator because there is not way Nadal can actually speak English like this.

 

[daddy]

I think in a way Federer will be happy about this, because he knows that he's now basically guaranteed to be number 1 until the French Open. Even Nadal can't win 4 tournaments in 4 weeks on clay. It also means he might get a chance to add Monte Carlo and Rome to his collection and potentially beat Nadal again on clay.

Federer can lose his ranking only if he plays bad and the calendar is not that important in this case. If he was as good as usually he would reach finals or semis in all clay court events thus he would not lose because of the good play. Since he is not, he can lose it anyways because - he still has a lot of points to defend. Remains to be seen how will he play on dirt.

 

[superstition]

If the ATP staff wants to manage basketball, I'm sure there are people who will replace them.

 

[bcast66]

i hate Nadal, that being said i think he does not understand how much college basketball means to people. also from my understanding... based on the commentators he is the most fit person on the tour (which he most definitely is NOT). he is more of a cry baby than roddick.

 

[bcast66]

how did they screw him over?
did he not have the choice to go to the tournament or not?
all i hear is excuses

me to nadal is a little(im not going to swear, he isnt worth it) OMG I HATE HIM. nadal= fruity

 

[Benhur]

i hate Nadal, that being said i think he does not understand how much college basketball means to people.

Of course basketball means a lot to many people. What Nadal is saying is: Sure, I understand that and respect it. But why can't we play tennis as usual?

If your are going to start shifting tournaments around because they coincide with other sports that "mean a lot" to many people, there is no end to it. World Cup soccer is the most important sports event in the world *by far*, every four years. But since it coincides with Wimbledon, let's move Wimbledon up or down a couple of weeks and wreck the rest of the tennis schedule. There is American football during the US Open final. Football means a lot to many people too, so let's move the US Open to non-football season... and so on indefinitely.

Wrecking an already packed tennis calendar and cramming 3 masters series events + Barcelona in 4 weeks, just before RG and just after Davis Cup -- all because of college basketball in the US, is patently absurd. As a poster mentioned here: how about packaging Montreal, Cincinnati, Miami and Dubai in a 4-week box, just before the US Open?

Indian Wells and Miami don't prevent anyone from watching college basketball or anything else, if that's what they want to do.

 

[Nadal_Freak]

i hate Nadal, that being said i think he does not understand how much college basketball means to people. also from my understanding... based on the commentators he is the most fit person on the tour (which he most definitely is NOT). he is more of a cry baby than roddick.

*******s just keep on coming. Ridiculous comments.

 

[Tennis_Monk]

i hate Nadal, that being said i think he does not understand how much college basketball means to people. also from my understanding... based on the commentators he is the most fit person on the tour (which he most definitely is NOT). he is more of a cry baby than roddick.

You probably dont understand how many people DONT care about american college basket ball.

 

[daddy]

i hate Nadal, that being said i think he does not understand how much college basketball means to people. also from my understanding... based on the commentators he is the most fit person on the tour (which he most definitely is NOT). he is more of a cry baby than roddick.

Well then people should choose between tennis and basketball. Definitly the wrong way to go about this is to destroy ATP shedule because of it.

 

[bcast66]

*******s just keep on coming. Ridiculous comments.

i hate fed with a passion. but i hate nadal more.

 

[daddy]

i hate fed with a passion. but i hate nadal more.

You must be ... a cricket fan ? What are you doing on a tennis board if you hate the worlds best players ?

..

 

[drive]

i hate Nadal, that being said i think he does not understand how much college basketball means to people. also from my understanding... based on the commentators he is the most fit person on the tour (which he most definitely is NOT). he is more of a cry baby than roddick.

Do you think that people from the rest of the world care about US college basketball? for you people = some US people, what an idiot. It's a shame that ATP calendar depends on things like that..

 

[veroniquem]

You can't argue with a hater, they're not open to rational arguments...

 

[zagor]

i hate Nadal, that being said i think he does not understand how much college basketball means to people. also from my understanding... based on the commentators he is the most fit person on the tour (which he most definitely is NOT). he is more of a cry baby than roddick.

I couldn't care less for college basketball and I'm sure most non-Americans feel the same,also Nadal has every right to criticize ATP for this ridicilous decision.

 

[flyer]

i hate Nadal, that being said i think he does not understand how much college basketball means to people. also from my understanding... based on the commentators he is the most fit person on the tour (which he most definitely is NOT). he is more of a cry baby than roddick.

your an id**t and should be banned, it doesnt matter how much people care about college basketball its not related to tennis, they are completely different sports and tennis should not base any of their decisions on college basketball, your obviously not nearly intelligent enough to understand that. Second you obviously do not like Nadal because what the heck does this have to do with his fitness and him being fruity??? Yeah nothing again your an id**t. Also Im sure your a Fed fan whose feathers are roused up to call Nadal a cry baby...I guess throwing rackets, yelling profanity, and making excuses for every lose, and having a gut would make him what you consider not to be a cry baby and the most fit player. BEAT IT ID**T.

 

[TennezSport]

Well..........

While I also agree with Rafa's comments on this issue as he is trying to defend the points that keep him in the #2 spot, however, lets look at it from the ATP vista.

ATP is pushed by the TV networks and they have a lot of money in one hand in BB and a little less money in the other hand with Tennis. TVN says.....So....let me see we can take the big money BB and push the little money tennis schedule so that we can capitalize on both. WIN WIN for TV!!! :shock: Who cares about the players and their feelings, they are just pawns on our playing board. The ATP says........Uh OK, show me the money.

So while it's not a great thing to do for the players or the sport, it's great for TV networks. This will continue to happen to Tennis until they get there own channel like the Golf channel (TTC doesn't cut it), so we better get used to it for now.

TennezSport

 

[raiden031]

All I can say is screw college basketball!

 

[miniRafa386]

the atp should get rid of an AMS during the clay season, prefferably hamburg, cause no one cares about that one. monte carlo and rome are the big clay AMS of the year. or they should spread out the tournies more than what the have now.

 

[miniRafa386]

also, they have two ESPN channels for a reason, just put college BB on ESPN, and tennis on ESPN 2. that simple

 

[daddy]

the atp should get rid of an AMS during the clay season, prefferably hamburg, cause no one cares about that one. monte carlo and rome are the big clay AMS of the year. or they should spread out the tournies more than what the have now.

ATP should not get rid of any tennis event as long as it is a good one. As for who cares, tennis fans care. And speaking about hamburg, that one will be changed and Hamburg lost its masters title - that was all the talk last year. I think that this year is the last one and form 2009 Hamburg will not be a master series event and some other city will get a Masters shield.

 

[ShooterMcMarco]

Yeah, I don't even like college basketball.

 

[bcast66]

You can't argue with a hater, they're not open to rational arguments...

DING ding lol veroniquem that is the smartest thing anyone on this board has ever posted.

 

[predrag]

I am amased someone gave this thread a one star ? So he is not correct to criticise the ATP for this ? What real tennis fan would give one star to the thread talking about how tennis is not apreciated enough in states ?

The man is correct, he has to play 4 tourneys in 4 weeks to defend his points and thus he will have a possible 20 matches in 28 days, having in mind we are talking about Nadal it is very probable that he will play no less than 18 or 19.

Tennis is so unappreciated in the States that it is ridiculous.
Only kids that are not playing football (American kind), baseball, basketball and hockey do play serious tennis.
Hell, even my own son switched to basketball.

Also, that huuuge number of kids that were involved in those sports becomes an army of couch quarterbacks that
are actual viewing base for ESPN.
For those guys Poker tournament is more interesting than tennis

All that combined with the serious lack of decent American players leads to tennis being on the deathbed in the USA.
Donald young could possibly change this, a little, being (politically correct) African American.
(How can he be African American when his parents and probably grand parents saw Africa only in books and pictures)


Regards, Predrag

 

[Shabazza]

your an id**t and should be banned, it doesnt matter how much people care about college basketball its not related to tennis, they are completely different sports and tennis should not base any of their decisions on college basketball, your obviously not nearly intelligent enough to understand that. Second you obviously do not like Nadal because what the heck does this have to do with his fitness and him being fruity??? Yeah nothing again your an id**t.

Agreed.

Also Im sure your a Fed fan whose feathers are roused up to call Nadal a cry baby...

It's ridiculous that everybody who hates Nadal is automatically labled a Federer-fan, even if the person openly admitted he also hates Fed and posted some hateful messages about him in the past. Every time I see someone putting down Nadal he's called a stupid Federer fan. You guys are just lame. Are you guys blind and don't get the fact that the tennis world is not just black and white.

Not every Nadal-hater is Federer-fan and vice versa! I'm sick and tired to the core of this ********!

I guess throwing rackets, yelling profanity, and making excuses for every lose, and having a gut would make him what you consider not to be a cry baby and the most fit player. BEAT IT ID**T.

Great way to show your hate for Federer and going down to the same level as bcast66 - guess it takes a hater to know one...

 

[Shabazza]

Nadal is totally right. It's ridiculous scheduling and an even worse reason to do so. Pathetic decision by Mr. Disney once again.

 

[RedWeb]

...Donald young could possibly change this, a little, being (politically correct) African American. (How can he be African American when his parents and probably grand parents saw Africa only in books and pictures)...

Donald Young can barely change his clothes without his parents looking over this shoulder, he certainly is in no position to change the face of american tennis.

African American is a demographic and not an experience. I doubt the majority of Italian, German, Irish, etc Americans have been back to their "homelands". You should seriously rethink that statement.

 

[flyer]

Agreed.



It's ridiculous that everybody who hates Nadal is automatically labled a Federer-fan, even if the person openly admitted he also hates Fed and posted some hateful messages about him in the past. Every time I see someone putting down Nadal he's called a stupid Federer fan. You guys are just lame. Are you guys blind and don't get the fact that the tennis world is not just black and white.

Not every Nadal-hater is Federer-fan and vice versa! I'm sick and tired to the core of this ********!



Great way to show your hate for Federer and going down to the same level as bcast66 - guess it takes a hater to know one...

Actually I like Federer, I was responding to the absurd comments made by whoever that poster was, I was pointing out the facts that made his arguments wrong and were obviously bias, Im no hater.

 

[predrag]

Donald Young can barely change his clothes without his parents looking over this shoulder, he certainly is in no position to change the face of american tennis.

African American is a demographic and not an experience. I doubt the majority of Italian, German, Irish, etc Americans have been back to their "homelands". You should seriously rethink that statement.

Ohhh man!

Yes, I do know what does African American stands for. My comment was tongue in cheek.
However, African American is the only one used.

Italian-American, German- , etc. are not used nearly as often. And that is exactly my point.

However, if you call Italian-American a person whose heritage is Italian, what should we call a person WHO IMMIGRATED INTO THE USA FROM lets say Zimbabwe and accepted the American citizenship?
Or his/her kids?


Regards, Predrag

 

[vandre]

i don't understand what the atp was thinking. one of the great things about tennis is the different surfaces. if the points last to long, watch hardcourt. if the points are over too quick, watch clay. instead of highlighting that and offering "something for everyone" they're gonna shoehorn as much of the claycourt season as possible into a month??? shenanigans!

i don't understand why in the age of dish tv and expanded cable packages could the atp not find anyone other than espn to carry iw and miami. who dropped the ball on this one? did the tennis channel not run enough infomercials to be able to bid high enough? was vs. running bullfighting that day? why do we have espn dictating the schedule of atp tournaments??? does the atp need espn so much that it does mind throwing the clay court season under the bus to "appease the beast"?

i don't understand why the atp would agree to such a thing! you've got a guy like nadal who is a beast on clay, don't you want him at every clay court tournament to put some ppl in the stands??? what happened to fairplay? basically, it would be impossible for nadal to gain any ground in the rankings (he would be lucky to defend his points). what we have here is an administrative decision affecting the rankings. maybe i'm overreacting, but i think thats the worst thing to have happen when you've got two players like fed and nadal battling each other and doing their best to make tennis interesting.

maybe the atp should investigate itself for trying to fix the rankings!

 

[Nadal_Freak]

Agreed.



It's ridiculous that everybody who hates Nadal is automatically labled a Federer-fan, even if the person openly admitted he also hates Fed and posted some hateful messages about him in the past. Every time I see someone putting down Nadal he's called a stupid Federer fan. You guys are just lame. Are you guys blind and don't get the fact that the tennis world is not just black and white.

Not every Nadal-hater is Federer-fan and vice versa! I'm sick and tired to the core of this ********!



Great way to show your hate for Federer and going down to the same level as bcast66 - guess it takes a hater to know one...

Though not all Nadal haters are Federer fans. A good majority of them are. I'm guessing about 80% of the Nadal haters are Fed fans. They are always so bitter about Nadal during the clay season beating up on poor Federer. So they go after with every little thing Nadal does like butt picking, taking extra time, making fun of his pants, wishing injury upon him, calling him topspin monkey, and etc. While everyone else just lets Fed win matches, Nadal gives it all he's got and that frustrates the Fed fans.

 

[TennezSport]

Good points but..........

i don't understand what the atp was thinking. one of the great things about tennis is the different surfaces. if the points last to long, watch hardcourt. if the points are over too quick, watch clay. instead of highlighting that and offering "something for everyone" they're gonna shoehorn as much of the claycourt season as possible into a month???

The thing that drives ESPN is money of course and time = money so the shorter the match the better for TV as they can schedule other money making sports like POKER :???: Do you really think that the mens matches were dropped to best of 3 sets at non GS events to help the players??? ESPN has been dropping Tennis like a hot potato and will continue to do so this year again, the ATP is trying to stop that so they give in to ESPN.

i don't understand why in the age of dish tv and expanded cable packages could the atp not find anyone other than espn to carry iw and miami. who dropped the ball on this one? did the tennis channel not run enough infomercials to be able to bid high enough? was vs. running bullfighting that day? why do we have espn dictating the schedule of atp tournaments??? does the atp need espn so much that it does mind throwing the clay court season under the bus to "appease the beast"?

The one who pays stays. TTC does not have enough area coverage and could not bid against the big boys. Money money money! With tennis viewing on the slight increase, they want to make the most money from all sports, so if one smaller sport gets in the way of the bigger sport (in the US), the smaller sport gets moved (if you want the big boy coverage).

i don't understand why the atp would agree to such a thing! you've got a guy like nadal who is a beast on clay, don't you want him at every clay court tournament to put some ppl in the stands??? what happened to fairplay? basically, it would be impossible for nadal to gain any ground in the rankings (he would be lucky to defend his points). what we have here is an administrative decision affecting the rankings. maybe i'm overreacting, but i think thats the worst thing to have happen when you've got two players like fed and nadal battling each other and doing their best to make tennis interesting. maybe the atp should investigate itself for trying to fix the rankings!

ESPN and the powers that be do not care anything about putting fans in seats or fairplay, they worship money and want fans in from of TV screens. In the US tennis comes in as the number 12 sport and clay is not very popular here either, so it doesn't pull big numbers on TV (even though it is growing). The ATP wants to keep as much coverage as possible so the become the lapdogs of ESPN and the other big boys in order to stay in the park.

TennezSport