Will the ATP fine

[barry]

Nadal for dropping out of Hamburg at the last minute like Hewitt did in the NASDAQ? Hewitt was fined $40,000 and had toe surgery the next day. I think it is a 72 hour before the event rule.

 

[Fee]

Apparently Nadal went to Hamburg to be examined by the ATP and then withdrew, so he avoided the fine.

 

[Marius_Hancu]

Apparently Nadal went to Hamburg to be examined by the ATP and then withdrew, so he avoided the fine.

clever move.

 

[Fee]

Rome to Hamburg to Spain, all one timezone, relatively short flights, add to the frequent flier mileage. What the heck, right?

(and VamosRafa was the original source of that info, credit due..)

 

[sandiegotennisboy]

smarty pants! if hewitt was only so clever. but what's 40K to someone who makes millions a year

 

[zorg]

The pros pay for their own trips on planes right? And with frequent flier miles, how is that good? What do they do?

 

[Fee]

Yes, they pay for their own plane fare, but with frequent flier miles they can earn free trips.

Hewitt's fine was totally bogus, it will be reduced (or eliminated) by the player council or whoever it is that decides those things.

 

[equinox]

heh, they expect him to fly halfway across the world to visit a atp approved trainer! when he's booked into surgery the next day!

 

[VamosRafa]

As Fee said, there was no fine. Rafa gave a long interview in Hamburg on Monday, where much love was shared among the Hamburg officials and Rafa.

I don't know if there's a transcript of that interview, but it took me half the morning to watch the video (just kidding), but it is long.

The video is here:

http://62.201.170.1/livescoring/pc/press-conferences.html

And there's no transcript in English that I can see. But although Rafa answered questions in Spanish, there was an interpreter, so all his answers were translated into English. The interview was at least 20 minutes total -- but what else did he have to do?

One cute thing, though. The Hamburg official did a big speech at the beginning and such (in English), and said how Rafa had played a match on Sunday that went five hours and 13 minutes. Rafa interrupted to say, "14 minutes." His English is improving.