A curious piece of news - I picked this up on another forum and this is the source:

http://img211.imageshack.us/my.php?image=marca0703071zg2.jpg

Nadal's team have told the Spanish press that Rafa intends next year to play the South American clay court season and skip events such as Dubai and Rotterdam. The reasoning is that it will help him avoid further injuries to his feet.

I find it a bit peculiar, to put it mildly, that this is being announced 11 months before it happens, and only 2 months into the current season. He will be entering possibly 8 tournaments (!)

Thoughts?

Hmm I wondered why he didn't play those events? Makes more sense for him. He didn't play Rotterdam though. He was supposed to play Marseille but pulled out.

I agree Nick, very odd timing for this announcement :unsure:

It is clear we should decrease the HC tournies. We need more clay and more grass on the agenda. Nadal decision makes sense to me but those South American tournies lose a bit of their interest without the other top seeds. They should all go there. Or even bettter, Let's turn Rotterdham and Dubai onto "natural" surfaces.

Do you really think we need more clay Tenez, there already seems to be so much :wacko:

More grass certainly wouldn't go amiss though.

Nadal would be a big fish in a relatively small pond. As if he was saying he no longer expects to compete for the number 1 ranking spot.

I'm not sure it sends that message, but it is perhaps an acknowledgement that he is not as much of a force, and is more prone to injury. on hard courts compared to clay. He played some S.A. clay tourneys in '05 and a more limited number of hardcourt events. Seemed like he had a bit more success that year in the hard court events he did play vs. '06.

The timing does seem a bit odd at first, but it may simply mean that he's started talking to some of the organizers of these tournaments, and wanted to make this announcement rather than have it start leaking out of the rumour mill.

or maybe he's going to build up points from Wins on smaller clay vs QFs in larger hardcourt tourneys.

The point system kinda supports this

Yes there is a lot of clay already but only played by the specialists which is what makes it cumbersome in my view. If IW were to keep the same entry list but was played on clay, it would be as interesting as on hard for me but with the advantage of not hurting the players as much as hard does.

I think this is almost an admitted situation for Nadal. He did his best while he was physically at his best and that did not work so, 2nd best seems to be his goal. We might think he is a bit young for that but clearly his body might not feel that young anymore.

Nadal should pull a Thomas Muster now and just play on clay!

Only up to a point - as the slams and TMS events are compulsory events in his ranking total he can only count his four best tournament results elsewhere in his total.

Winning smaller events on clay rather than losing in the quarters of larger hardcourt events might boost his total slightly, but it'll make little headway towards overhauling Federer for #1. More likely it'll bolster Nadal's position at #2.

One other factor to consider - it's clear that an increasing number of players now have a successful gameplan against Nadal on hardcourts. Playing fewer HC events gives others less of a chance to work him out on that surface.

What makes this more interesting is that it comes on the heels of Nadal telling the press that he is abandoning his experiment to put more beef in his serves and will revert to his previous strategy. It gives the impression that he is a bit rattled at the moment after some recent setbacks and is returning to what worked best for him in 2005. I'm not sure that's the intention here but it is nonetheless interesting to observe.

Hmmm, that could well be true. If it is the case, that's a shame-Nadal has proved he can mx-up his game when he needs to, but reverting to his old style will see him only dominate on clay.

I was impressed with how he played at Wimbledon, and he's proved he can adjust his style of play: I'm not sure that by playing these smaller clay tournaments, that he's cementing his future as a threat to no.1 spot. Is he admitting he's content with and prepared to fight for no.2?

Nadal attracted a fair amount of criticism when his hard court results tailed off in the second half of last season, and things don't appear to be looking up for him in 2007 either. Maybe this is just meant as a timely reminder to everyone that he is, after all, primarily a clay courter? I agree that it hardly looks promising in terms of him wanting to challenge for the number 1 spot, but this announcement may take the expectations off him a little and relieve the pressure on hard courts somewhat.

He made those odd comments about just wanting to finish inside the top 8 at the end of the season, at the start of the year, which leads me to believe it's just some form of psychology. Again, it comes across as rather negative though...

His psychology is somewhat worrying at present, Nadal the winner has always had an abundance of confidence, and a "never say die" attitude-confidence plus his gruelling determination to grind out points was a formidable combination. This slightly faltering lack of self-belief needs to be reversed-and swiftly-before CC season starts in earnest. It's vital for Rafa to put in some show stopping performances, amend his confidence and silence his critics.

These comments coming from you...Someone who once hailed Nadal as the true number 1...

Nadal is on a path down the rankings.As blunt and as ugly as it sounds,he is.I dont want that for him,but his style of play,which we have criticised for so long,doesnt support longevity in the game.Its over excessive on many things mainly his body.

Its sad though that he had one and a half seasons of greatness because he is so young!

In the article that sparked this discussion, his team say that they hope to protect him from injury. He suffered a career threatening foot problem in 2005 and plays with inserts in his shoes, so maybe he is still suffering from this. In which case, it's a sensible decision. But it doesn't bode well for his hard court campaign this year.

I agree with much of what Tenez has been saying on this thread. People who are saying that there is too much claycourt tennis are very much mistaken, there is too much hard court tennis. Just look at the monopoly that hard court tennis has, 2 of the 4 grand slams, the Masters Cup and 5 out of the 9 masters series events (soon to be 5 out of 8). The unique specialisms of claycourt and grasscourt tennis are fading away more and more to make way for hardcourts to tighten their already firm grip on the tennis calendar.
I'm not saying this era is weak, but comparing it to the nineties, while the strength in depth on the hardcourts has increased significantly, it has decreased somewhat on clay and grass which is a huge shame.

Yes but the point I was making is that we would want more grass rather than more clay. Also the reason there is so much hardcourt tennis is that it is the most neutral surface. I've never heard any of the players complain about too much hardcourt tennis. For most of them it's what they're best at. Surely we don't want to encourage claycourt specialism? And of course grass court specialism is a thing of the past.

For me more clay court tennis = more injuries.

I'd love to see more grass court. Up grass court, reduce hard court, keep clay the same!

There used to be a lot more tournaments on carpet in Sampras' day - which I understand is a similar fast low-bouncing surface to grass. I don't know why those were phased out, nor do I know whether they are hard on the body. Perhaps there could be more indoor carpet tournaments.

I suspect that an important attraction of hard courts across the game is that it involves much less maintenance than grass or clay courts and is therefore easier for small clubs etc. to replicate. You cannot have professional tournaments played on surfaces that are seen rarely in real life.

This is funny but this is exactly what I said many times Rafa shoudl do. Better the game he had but not change its tactics and becoming more agressive. That was doomed from day one for me. You either have the skills of a retriever or those of an attacker but one cannot change his style over night or even over a year period.

By simply becoming even more consistent and obviously tuning the length of his shots, he is the most dangerous retriever. Problem however with this plan is his health....hence clay mostly.

makes sense to me.

Good point. But I think the fact they are professionals and really have pushed the limits of their physical potential should certainly make them a special case. All over the world and in my club, people play tennis on tarmac painted green or red. I don't think a single pro tournment is played on such surface. They make the balls go bold after a set and are extremely slow.

I also think that it's a shame that carpet is a dying surface. I loved the heavyweight clashes on the surface between Lendl and McEnroe (especially the ones that Lendl won) in the eighties and Sampras and Becker in the nineties. Nowadays I think that there are only 6 tournaments on carpet on the calendar. The players have had a few problems with the surface recently. The taraflex carpet used at 2005 Masters Cup drew complaints from 5 out of the 8 players (everyone apart from Federer, Ljubicic and Nalbandian). Taraflex was also used at the recent Switzerland V Spain Davis Cup tie and there were a series of injuries. That was a shame. I have personally thought for a while that many of indoor tournaments should convert from hard to carpet.

:ok: I completely agree

I don't agree with that. I would say that the hard courts are far more damaging to the muscles, joints and ligaments than clay. There is also much more of an impact and 'shock' to absorb with feet landing and making contact with the surface.

There are two sides to this: unquestionably clay is far better for joints and muscles. Amateurs with injuries are often advised to play on clay for this very reason. The downside is that the style of tennis that clay demands produces different kinds of problems because of the length of matches and rallies. Empirically, specialist clay players seem to have shorter shelf lives. But most players suffer injuries at some stage on hard courts.