Will Nadal win RG in 2010?

[namelessone]

I think Roland Garros should keep it the way it is or make it even faster unless AELTC decides to speed Wimbledon up. It is only fair.

It's not about being "fair". Wimbledon changed their surface because people were getting bored of the serve-fests although the official reason for the change was that the new grass would be more durable,though I think we can all agree that this has failed because the still disappears from the baseline in the second week.

RG has no reason to make its courts faster. RG in the last years was faster that in those of the past(80's and 90's),when the condition were molasses-like. This year,for whatever reason,they didn't want to water to court. The condition were very dry and windy and the clay was blowing off the court,leaving he condition to be more HC like than clay. The semifinalists showed this,3 out of 4 being power player,Gonzales,Soderling and DelPo.

Fact is that Wimbledon had motives to change the surface. Misplaced or not but at least they exist. What possible reason could the RG organizers have for not watering the courts? I remember watching the final this year and the conditions were damper on that day and sure enough the surface was slowed down by these weather conditions. In windy,dry conditions,clay courts need to be watered not necesarrily to make play slower,but to pack the clay layer more tightly(it absorbs the water like a sponge) especially the top layer which gets blown off by the wind,so as not to make it play like HC. I have seen players request watering down of the courts in lower ranked clay tournaments because sometimes the clay layer gets too thin and the movement on this surface is affected. Monte Carlo and Rome have the best clay as far as I have seen. It is a nice balanced layer of clay,not too thick,but not too thin.

 

[JeMar]

Gaudio in 2010.

 

[selesian]

You already saw what happened when an in form Soderling plays an in form Nadal at the French. Don't play that injury crap either. He just destroyed Hewitt in straights the round before and played just as well in the next round. Only problem is Nadal sucks against people who step up and hit the ball. He becomes another whipping boy. See Tsonga AO 2008 and Del Potro USO 2009 for examples

Don't be ridiculous -- Nadal was clearly not moving well in that match. Soderling was striking the ball very well a few weeks earlier in Rome, and still only managed to win one game against Nadal.

Hewitt didn't even show up in the previous round in Paris. All Rafa had to do was to keep the ball in play and wait for Hewitt errors. A very disappointing match.

I think Nadal has definitely lost some confidence since the loss at the French...but hopefully with wiser scheduling next year, he'll be back to his winning ways.