More of Nadal complaints, this time from the 2018 French Open. Which you would think he wouldn’t since he holds this tournament in the most dominant of fashions. The Spaniard has won in Paris, a record, 10 times. Something that no other player has ever done, nor will ever do again (at least in my lifetime). While it is an incredible achievement, Nadal complaints are rather frequent and becoming a bit picky.
Nadal Complaints: 2018 French Open
After his first round win over Simone Bolelli (ITA) in straight sets, Nadal told French News Le Figaro, “The court is more slippery than previous years, I’ve never played on this court so slippery. I slipped, several times, when starting and changing directions. If you look at the court carefully, there are a lot of white or grayish areas. There are some small ‘stones’ coming back up, and that makes it not have the same grip as previous years.”
This is interesting, considering that he has not really ever been challenged at Roland Garros since his first title in 2005 (except 2009, 2015, & 2016). You would think that Nadal would just accept the courts as they are and continue to dominate…regardless of his footing.
Nadal Complaints: Past Complaints
If you have followed tennis at all in the last decade, you’ll know that Rafael Nadal has always voiced his opinions on the sport.
Here’s a short list of Nadal Complaints he’s made to the ITF/ATP:
- Courts are too fast and can cause players to get injured
- There are too many hard court tournaments, there should be more clay court tournaments
- Currently there are 21 clay ATP tournaments and 27 hard court tournaments (6 Grass court tournaments)
- The ATP tennis season is too long
- The ATP should have a 2 year ranking system instead of just 1
- Threatened to boycott Madrid 1000 if organizers didn’t change the color back to red from blue (it was too fast)
- ATP Finals should not be indoors
- Petitioned to have a chair umpire banned from officiating his matches (Carlos Bernardes)
- There should be more time between points (Nadal is a constant breaker of the ITF rule)
I am sure he had several other complaints behind closed doors, though the above Nadal complaints are the ones he’s voiced over the last decade. I personally think a lot of these complaints are hogwash and just a way to get the playing conditions and scheduling to his liking. If Nadal thinks the tennis season is too long, then he should look at his own playing schedule and make adjustments to accommodate appropriate rest between tournaments. His style of play is what will be his demise, he grinds like the best of them and his body can only take so much.
What do you think? Does Nadal spend too much time complaining about the sport instead of making adjustments? Let me know in the comments below.
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