Another Neil Harman article - Complaints showing signs of fatigue

I am so pleased that Harman has written this piece. It seems to be that Rafa especially seems to think he has a right to win everything, and that if he is running out of juice, then the season is wrong. As Harman says, the game is more physical now but John McEnroe's amazing year when he played an extraordinary amount of singles and doubles makes this lot look like wimps.

Surely, as others have called for, if the courts slowing down mean we are unlikely to see another McEnroe and that we are very lucky still to have Fed, then it is not the schedule that needs tampering with.

I implore the ATP and ITF to make good long term decisions for the good of the sport, not quick knee jerk reactions to top players at the moment.


Article in today's The Times by Neil Harman:


You didn’t seem that tired this week,” someone said to David Ferrer. “But I am tired. I am tired sure, I’m very tired. I want to stop but I can’t because I have the Davis Cup. But I’m really tired,” replied the world No 5 from Spain.
It took one’s mind back to a reaction of a former Guardian tennis correspondent to the comment by Jeremy Bates, then the British No 1, that he lost a match at the US Open because he was tired. “TIRED?” the writer exclaimed, lurching in his seat. Suffice to say it was the end of the press conference.
At this stage of the season, everyone is feeling a little less than 100 per cent, that is for sure. Indoor arenas exacerbate the degree of staleness and fatigue — there is no daylight in which to escape a sport that was meant to be played outside in the fresh air and is contested to the numbing sounds of air conditioners regurgitating the aroma of sweaty bodies.
“Sun is energy,” I recall Rafael Nadal saying when his less-than-successful indoor career was pinpointed.

The Spaniard is one of the leading advocates of staging less tennis in a year — indeed his antagonism towards the present calendar is exacerbated to the extent that he is among those who would like to see a two-year rolling ranking system brought in to the ATP World Tour, with the consequence, one imagines, that he can play less and remain at the top of the sport for longer. For him, it makes a kind of sense.
But should the players at the top of the game be as tired as they say they are?

On departing London, Nadal had played 82 matches, only one of which was extended to five sets (that remarkable first-round contest at Roland Garros against John Isner, of the United States). By the end of this week, that total will have grown to 84, assuming he is required to play two singles matches for Spain in the Davis Cup final against Argentina.
Novak Djokovic, the world No 1, has played 76 matches (one of five sets), Roger Federer 76 (three five-setters), Andy Murray, 69 (two five-setters), Ferrer 77 (two five-setters with the Davis Cup final to come) and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 69 (five five-setters).

By way of comparison, in his bravura year of 1984, when he lost only three of 85 matches, John McEnroe also played doubles 43 times, won 13 titles — they played a lot more best-of-five set finals at tour level then — and, as far as I can recall, he did not complain of tiredness once.
Yes, the game is supremely physical these days. It is intense, it is a drain, the court surfaces have slowed, the strings have made rallies longer and a look at the calendar’s length and the imposition of mandatory events is worthwhile, but perhaps those complaining of being tired should be a little more circumspect.

Finally the MSM is waking up to the root cause of this endless whingeing. Harman could have been even more infammatory and cited Federers great years, where he played more matches without moaning. And didn't Lendl once play > 100 matches? I confess I cannot recall.

Also it's very interesting to see him pinpoint the inherently self-serving nature of the call for two year ranking.

Yes this is what I've just also covered on the WTF thread.
McEnroe never had to play this gruelling, slow surface brand of tennis back then. Was Mac was fitter than Nole or Nadal? No way.
Slower conditions create a different style of play, a style completely alien to Mac, etc. The game is completely different now, almost a different sport.

Surfaces back then were quicker, matches were quicker, and they werent quite so compressed across the March to Sept. period.
And as I said on the WTF thread, Nadal and Nole particularly have played a huge number of matches across the core 6 months of the year and got to just about every final Sunday whereas guys like Isner, Ferrer, Berdych,, even Federer havent.

I'm not a fan of Rafa making too many complaining noises, he's a victim of his own fortune really and just expressing his own opinion, but the key thing is the conditions need speeding up - plus I think the schedule is a little too crowded also...I dont see the point in playing back-to-back Masters IW/Miami and Canada/Cincy, and also Wimby starting just a week after French Open. Plus other things. There are quite alot of changes that are needed in my opinion, not just conditions, not just schedule. The whole thing needs looking at properly.

Someone needs to get smaller balls.

lol, indeed BB.
But Harman seems to contradict himself at the end by saying there are many issues at play with tennis right now but the players should be more circumspect?
So they should just shut up and put up with it?
How are the conditions going to change? By the players making no comments whatsoever? Seems an odd article to me...complaining about "complainers" isnt productive, there needs to be a groundswell for collective change in tennis at the moment not everyone pulling in different directions with limp circumspection. The tour is hardly going to change if guys like Nadal dont speak up - at least he is doing, the others seem happy to grind it out week in, week out which is fine when they're not going deep every week and have lots of space to recover. Plus guys of lower rankings dont have as much sway anyway. Ok, Nadal may be wrong with 2-year rankings ideas but at least its moving the discussion forward - the other players need to chip in too, and act as a collective soundpiece to ATP/ITF.

lydian wrote:I'm not a fan of Rafa making too many complaining noises, he's a victim of his own fortune really and just expressing his own opinion, but the key thing is the conditions need speeding up - plus I think the schedule is a little too crowded also...I dont see the point in playing back-to-back Masters IW/Miami and Canada/Cincy, and also Wimby starting just a week after French Open. Plus other things. There are quite alot of changes that are needed in my opinion, not just conditions, not just schedule. The whole thing needs looking at properly.

I agree Lydian - I think, as I said above, if the court conditions are leading to this exhaustion and mean that we are unlikely to see a wonderful 'touch' player like McEnroe flourish again, then something needs looking at apart from the schedule.

I don't agree so much with back to back masters being shelved because you will have a problem where to fit these tournaments in - if you start cutting tournaments you will hurt other players, and you will be bringing less money into the sport. However, I do think that it might be worth looking at making either Indian Wells or Miami non-mandatory because it would then allow many players to begin their clay prep earlier - however for the Roddicks of this world who don't like the dirt, there is a chance for them to shine.

I don't really think your 2nd para is totally fair - let's remember all those consecutive semis in gs of Fed, and now the QF run - I think we can all agree that over the last five years he has played more than his fair share of big matches - in fact the others just don't come close!

Indeed TP. Federer is different from just about every other player going so why should we look to him as to how tennis should be also? The future of tennis should not be dictated by any one player, or any one style of play. The problem is the conditions are creating one style of play - players like Federer and those before him will not come through anymore. We need conditions that encourage/reward all styles of play...grass should be grass, clay should be slow, USO should be quick, etc, etc...its all too homogenised now. Might as well just medium-pace DecoTurf II the lot!

I'm not saying shelve events, we just need to spread them out better. I also agree they should perhaps play less TMS, e.g. 6 out of 9...as it used to be I believe? Also the ranking system is now best of 18 events whereas befroe it was 14, so the tour encourages players to play more with this and the mandatory nature of TMS. On top of that they slow the conditions down - its ridiculous! If nothing changes the leading guys every year (whoever they are) will be victims of their success. The question is should the tour be creating victims or not? It didnt used to.

I don't think anyone is asking for the schedule or the courts to be tailored for Fed - I think he has expressed disappointment at courts continually being slowed down on a few occasions.

We do need to see the courts having their own individual challenges and not the homogenised surfaces of today - absolutely agree.

I do sympathise with the mandatory Masters debate. At least Rafa can now miss (as he did this year) one Masters tournie because of playing over 600 matches which relieves his schedule of something - of course, he could skip MC as well, but is unlikely to wish to because it is clay. Perhaps if one of the hc Masters was a non mandatory as well, it would be fairer - then players could choose to miss the one that didn't play to their strenghts if they need to buy a little rest time?

Good points TP, I think it would be good if the pros could skip a Masters from IW/Miami, the clay Masters and Canada/Cincy...that would bring it back down to 6 out of 9.

I;d like to see a bigger time period between FO and SW19...and AO is just in the wrong time but we'll never see that moved (I think Masters events should be leading up to a slam ideally).

I think the time period between FO and W is ridiculously short, and doesn't allow the tour to have a grass masters, which seems a shame as it is the one surface not represented in the Masters - think what Sampras' masters count might have been if it were - however, I digress, more masters tournies NOT what is needed!

The only thing I would say is that when you consider Borg doing the double RG and W (how many times - quite a bit!), Rafa doing it twice and Fed managing (by the skin of his teeth) once - it distinguishes some of the absolute all time greats from the merely greats, and that is good for sport, that kind of Herculean challenge that only a few can manage - it's like the A* over the A.

No, you need to leave the 'Everest' type challenges in so we can appreciate absolute excellence and the rarity of it.

Just don't punish the limbs of the players with very slow courts and so punish the brave and attacking ones - and I count Fed, Rafa and Novak in this mix.

I think we're pretty much agreed on outlook TP. I've just written on the other thread the exact same thing about how hard it was to win FO and SW19...that was and still should be one of the ultimate challenges in tennis (the grand slam in same year being the ultimate one) as so many have failed to do it. And yet in the space of a few years we have Federer, Nadal and now probably Djokovic doing it. I'm not going to argue whether each of them should have or not achieved that feat, but we cant deny its been made much easier by the homogenisation of clay and grass. When we think of the amazing players down the years who couldnt do it when the surfaces were playing as they should (Mac, Lendl, Sampras, Connors) it makes you wonder doesnt it. It seems such a shame that modern tennis is being destroyed by those who think they know whats best for the game - and it potentially renders all the records like the amazing FO/SW19 double of yesteryear obselete really.

lydian wrote:Indeed TP. Federer is different from just about every other player going so why should we look to him as to how tennis should be also? The future of tennis should not be dictated by any one player, or any one style of play. The problem is the conditions are creating one style of play - players like Federer and those before him will not come through anymore. We need conditions that encourage/reward all styles of play...grass should be grass, clay should be slow, USO should be quick, etc, etc...its all too homogenised now. Might as well just medium-pace DecoTurf II the lot!

I very much agree, and in fact I'm not happy to see the French being speeded up. I liked the idea of one surface where a S American or Mediterranean teenager could slug it out for 5 hours followed by a Grass event that he got wiped off the court in 80 minutes.

The man who could master all that would be special indeed!

Exactly BB, remember when Muster said about Wimbledon "Grass is for cows!", and then the fast courts guys got eaten alive on clay by pan-handle grippers such as Mantilla. I loved the differences we had back then. Makes you wonder who's implementing the recent surface/ball changes...cant be true fans of the game!

This is why we can't value teh Wimbledon/FO double or the career slam as much as we used to in Agassi's time.

They are all slow courts nowadays....end of!

Lydian says this about Harman's article,

But Harman seems to contradict himself at the end by saying there are many issues at play with tennis right now but the players should be more circumspect?

Harman may be coming at it crab-fashion but I think he's right.

Like most on here, I'd like to have a mix of fast and slow surfaces, but much of the game away from clay needs to be quicker - at SW19, the USO, and many of the other lesser tournaments. That is how the whingers would save their limbs. But they want it both ways, namely a shortened schedule which enables the most successful to win everything (but screws the lower-ranked players), medium-slow homogenised surfaces and big fluffy balls to help them to win everything, and a ranking system designed to prolong their ability to receive favourable draws.

I therefore am entirely unimpressed by complaints from the likes of Nadal and Djoko unless they address the central issue of how the game has changed, which they won't.