not really the blue clay they are angry about; it's the way that the decision was made against the players' wishes. ATP stands for Association of Tennis Players. It was formed to protect the interests of the players. Now it seems to cater to the interests of tournament owners, and the players feel they have no voice. This is the root of the problem.
the reason no 1 and 2 quickly gone is they don't want to risk injuring and losing further upcoming matches for another 5 or 6 months. the fear of getting hurt itself will limit the game. Delpo stamped himself to the wall this week, courts 2 and 3 are more slippery than centre, JM went on to say he was lucky didn't injure shoulder.
the problem is not the color of clay as most people complain but the underlying hardened surface...
If the main tennis court has to be redone every year then this is a poor venue for a world class tennis tournament. Clay courts take months (sometimes longer) to properly settle down.
Slippery courts are dangerous.
The testing of the surface was insufficient.
Lost in all the talk about better visibility (which I do like) is the fact that when they wanted to switch to blue clay, it was to better match the sponsor's colors.
ATP & Tiriac should remember that Madrid is of highest level ATP MASTERS 1000 not aN ATP250 tournament .
They can arrange coulours and models as ball girls but they can't arrange a proper court.
If they can't arrange proper court ATP should move tournament to Hamburg which sued ATP for relegating it to ATP 500 level.
Apparently their mistake was not so much the color but over compacting the surface to the point where the loose material on top slid overtop a harder compacted subsurface like ball bearing along a hard track.
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We've had the same [guy] who has been working on the courts at Roland Garros for 12 years," Tiriac said. "We know that a new court is never good, even if we keep sweeping it, they have to play on it, Here in Madrid, we have to built and dismantle it each year. There's a reason that the court is what it is. We did not want to have so many bad bounces as before. What happens is that they have been pushing, pushing and pressing it to compress it, and have done it so much that it has become too hard."
He is lying!!!! the guy was just an advisor, the company chosen to make the courts knew there was a problem long time before, even the other companies knew the courts were done wrong. didn't care til the event start, now they are trying to solve the problem in the last days trying to dismantle the hard subsurface. too late.
the Magic Cavern empty 300 milion euros.
built and dismantle each year, until the summer of 2011 Real Madrid baskeball team played there, then the club left to play in a better located facility in downtown (the magic cavern is in nowehere, quite a distance from underground station, 40 mins-1 hour by car from downtown, and some more problems with the neightbourhood). the venue has been empty since last summer.
in fact, the madrid tennis federation stopped the activity in the indoor garden and outside courts because the contract was too expensive at the end of 2011, even the kids were not allowed to play tennis there. in fact the best indoor courts are going to be for paddel and the others for a formula one team, no more tennis indoor.
the magic cavern was going to cost 100 milion euros, then the final amount was almost 300 milion euros.
retractabler roof in 3 stadiums? never rains in may in Madrid. never.
the design inside is horrible, poor visibility on the main court's corners, main court too small, only 12500, must have been 15-16000, show court 1 and 2, 3000 and 2000, compare to Rome 6000 and 3500.
and the spanish media and players are "silent respect" because the director and codirector are Santana and Moya.
and Nadal is talking as the representative of almost 20 local players in the top 200 and the majority of fans of the country.
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They should put tiriac and santana to play, and charge 40 euro for it, then lets wait and see who is going to watch that.
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Uncle Toni: Madrid can proceed without Tiriac
Toni Nadal, the uncle and coach of Rafael Nadal, tells Spanish TV, "that the ATP given permission to this [Madrid] is an outrage," and that it's not worth the risk of the players' health to compete on such a slippery surface.
Toni Nadal also took aim at tournament owner Ion Tiriac, saying, "I'll thank you if you take him somewhere else, to see if we can organize [the tournament] without him ... but the blame is also with ATP that allowed Tiriac to do that. What power this man must have that allows him to change customs and habits of the players ... Tiriac apologized to Rafa after the match. But the big culprit is ATP, which should not have give permission [for blue clay] and I hope that they do not give it next year."
Veteran tennis journalist Richard Evans, who is in Madrid, tweeted that Tiriac will step down in 2013, but didn't specify why. A Romanian TV station reported that Tiriac is merely stepping away from the administrative side of things, and will remain as tournament owner and chairman.
