When did the court at the Miami Masters become ... "slow" ?

ROGER FEDERER: Yeah, I mean, look, I don't know. I feel that both are pretty slow, to be quite honest. It's hard to put balls away, like you say. You have to really set it up perfectly. It reminds me slightly to clay in terms of how you can construct points. The big serve maybe has a bit more you know, on clay it just gives you a bit more and then you can do the one two punch, one two three punch at times more than on clay. Other than that, you have to really create the way you play the points. Yeah, I wish it was a bit faster, but it is what it is. It's also a surface I can play my best tennis on, so we'll see how it goes.

RAFAEL NADAL: Never. Never can be like clay on hard because the movements are completely different. So that's makes impossible have a similar than clay when you are playing in hard, because in clay you cannot slice and you have more time. For sure I am not agree on that. The court is not very fast, not very slow, is average court. I think is normal one like probably the rest of the normal tournaments on hard. So no, I feel that the court is like every year.

socal1976 wrote:

bogbrush wrote: That wasn't the case before and certain seismic achievements in the past such as the RG/SW10 double are in fact no longer a tenth of the achievement they once were. Wimbledon and Roland Garros in 1978 was incredible; in 2011 it's predictable on form.

See this exact quote is my main problem with the slow court theorists. Invariably it ends up distilling into an argument that Rafa's and other player's accomplishments are tainted because the grass at wimbeldon is green clay and all the hardcourts are slow as well. And a very sick strain of Fed apologists are the leading proponents of this theory. The funny thing is great Fed doesn't need apologists and it is beneath the man to give red meat to these slow court conspiracy theorists in order to cover for recent losses. And yes Federer with his legion of fans (some in the media and on blogs) and his huge legacy can easily feed into this slow court theory. The alternate that he is getting old and the competition is getting better is just too logical and painful for Fed and some of his apologists to accept.

The Australian open went from rebound ace, an extremely slow, and high bouncing hardcourt to the plexicushion another slow and high bouncing hard court. Was Miami slow when legendary slow court player Andy Roddick won in 2010? When did they start slowing the courts down after Fed won in Aus in 2010, or pulled off the RG-wimby double in 2009?

In short, the game has changed, mainly because of racquet and string technology which gives the advantage to the baseliner who has speed. In the 70s and 60s the S and V guys had the advantage and it was a different game. Played with wooden racquets and gut strings that did not allow for the kind of pace and whip from the back of the court. I like it, and in no way are the accomplishments of Rafa or Novak or any other modern champion less impressive than past greats. In fact, if anything their accomplishments in this globalized game are even more impressive than players who dominated tennis when it was country club affair played in relatively few nations.

socal1976 wrote:Borg was a really good looking and stylish guy. Plus he could do incredible things athletically. Although I don't really remember much about him I was too young.

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