TENNIS MELBOURNE – Just two days into the Australian Open a number of Spanish players have expressed their dissatisfaction with the difference in court-speeds at Melbourne Park. Bruno Bergarece Sans
AO 2015: Interviews, Results, Order of Play, Draws
Just two days into the Australian Open a number of Spanish players have expressed their dissatisfaction with the difference in court-speeds at Melbourne Park. The problem is many of these players train on one court and then play their matches on a different one and it’s like playing a completely different sport.
“I don’t think it’s fair that every court you play on has a different speed”, said Roberto Bautista after defeating Dominic Thiem in four sets. “If under the roof you play at one speed, it should be the same outside. It can’t be that you train on one court that’s quick, then others are slower and then inside the speed is perfect to play on. I’ve expressed these complaints, but they don’t say anything”.
Much of these complaints are also aimed at the fact that top players barely move around courts, playing and training on the main courts, meaning that they have an advantage over those players who are constantly having to adapt to the different speeds of the surface.
“It’s the quickest surface out of all the years I’ve played in Australia”, mentioned David Ferrer, who overcame a deficit of a set and a break to overcome Brazilian Thomaz Bellucci. “The practice courts are even quicker because they’re smaller, but in the past they’ve been too slow. Now, they’ve turned it around. What can you do? Try to adapt. You can complain but you’re not going to get anything from that. The court isn’t going to be slower if you keep complaining”.
A victim of that speed was Pablo Carreño who was ousted by big-serving Gilles Muller on court 22 (one of the quickest). “I didn’t play tennis because I couldn’t. The court was very quick and the ball really slid through the surface. Those points that weren’t aces by him I could hardly play in. I was doing what I could. Returning serve was a nightmare. I’ve trained at the club twice because it’s impossible to get a court if you’re not seeded. I trained on Margaret Court with Bautista and it was a different world. We could have normal rallies on a normal court, with a medium speed which you could return serve and play. However, on the outside courts, where I trained with Verdasco before the game, we couldn’t keep a rally going for more than two shots. Serve, return, end. They’re too quick. Normally, at every tournament the main courts are a bit slower than the outside ones but here they’re much quicker than normal. Today was anything but tennis; I was playing the lottery on my return games to see if I could guess where he was going to serve”, said the disappointed Spaniard.
“I put the racket in place, the ball bounced and I couldn’t hit it”, was Nicolas Almagro’s reflection after coming off the court against Kei Nishikori. The man from Murcia was happy to be back on the court for the first time since Roland Garros 2014 but a straight sets defeat against the talented Japanese player left him with a bitter taste also as a result of the surface. “I don’t know what the problem is, but the court is similar to the one we played on in the Davis Cup final in Prague, which was ice and the ball didn’t bounce. They’re trying to get rid of tournaments on clay and the rhythm they’re going at the same thing will happen with hard court tournaments. You’ve got the likes of Karlovic, Groth or Kokkinakis who are having a field day”.
Finally Verdasco, who overcame a slow start against James Ward to get his campaign up and running at a Grand Slam which holds brilliant memories for the lefty from Madrid, as he played the best tennis en route to the semi-finals in 2009, stated that “I’ve trained on Hisense Arena and Margaret Court. Also outside on courts 16, 18 and 20. Today I played on court number seven. The outside courts are quicker and the ones which are furthest away are the quickest. Court number seven and the others on that side are quick but maybe a little bit less. And Hisense is the slowest I’ve trained on. Each court is a bit different. I trained with Carreño on court 18 and we got five balls over the net in every game. Basically every point was a serve”.
