Nadal Lobbying For "Softer" Grass!!!

We have always been saying how TDs have slowed hard courts down to help Nadal win on them.

This time, thanks to LTA's Chairman Phillip Brook, we  have found out how Nadal lobbies behind the closed doors demanding grass in Wimbledon to get changed.

He wants it to be "softer"....i.e. in my understanding give higher bounce. All in the name of it being "kinder" to his body...

The man has no shame...


I love Brooks's response:

"I recently discussed with Nadal. He confessed to be concerned about the speed of Wimbledon courts. In my opinion, he should fear the hard courts more. Both for technical matters and health. I believe that grass and clay surfaces are best for his body.

For years, I have been fighting to grow lawn tennis. Finally the results are good. From this summer, we will have more tournaments in the calendar, Stuttgart, and two others that will increase their importance. To underline that, at the Queen's tournament, there will be the participation of seven of the top-12 tennis players in the rankings. In any case, I still think that five weeks on grass are not enough at all."

Softer grass would actually be worse for him. There are 2 ways to "soften" grass:

1 - longer grass (currently cut at 9mm), that would make the bounce lower and the grass would disappear quicker as it woudl be unrroted more easily under the players feet.

2 - by increasing the loam/clay ratio (currently it is essentially baked clay, hence high bounce and slower). problem with that is that the court would be a potato field with today's heavier, more powerful player.

So in conclusion Nadal should be very happy with the grass as is. His problem is of course the first week where it still resembles to grass but after that, with teh bigger balls, it is actually slower than the FO...more or less.

Thinking that such a typical clay court player managed to win it twice is enough to make any grass specialist sick! Bruguerra would have also won the Wimby/FO double had he played under the same conditions.

I am sure that Toni has already started breeding a new special kind of grass with torns and prickless in his garden. Supposedly this grass is red colour, but this shouldn't bother players.

Tenez wrote:Softer grass would actually be worse for him. There are 2 ways to "soften" grass:

1 - longer grass (currently cut at 9mm), that would make the bounce lower and the grass would disappear quicker as it woudl be unrroted more easily under the players feet.

2 - by increasing the loam/clay ratio (currently it is essentially baked clay, hence high bounce and slower).  problem with that is that the court would be a potato field with today's heavier, more powerful player.

So in conclusion Nadal should be very happy with the grass as is. His problem is of course the first week where it still resembles to grass but after that, with teh bigger balls, it is actually slower than the FO...more or less.

Thinking that such a typical clay court player managed to win it twice is enough to make any grass specialist sick! Bruguerra would have also won the Wimby/FO double had he played under the same conditions.

Thanks, T!

I thought that soft grass (more of it) would soften and slow balls down, a bit like clay...
I had no idea how short they cut it, only 9mm!!!

Whatever he asked for, is a joke...but he must be having pressure from sponsors not to embarrass himself in Wimbledon...AGAIN!

How silly must he look and feel to have GOAT ambitions and not be able to go past first few rounds of the most important and prestigious tournament!!!!

And what's worse (or better ) to lose to almost "anonymous" players...

I think his main concern now is actually to do well on clay. He needs to build his confidence and I am pretty sure his confidence is down to how physically superior he is to the rest of the field. And that gap is narrowing fast.