Match report

Andy Roddick © Tennistalk.com
Internazionali BNL d Italia
Semi final
5/10/08 Tot
us  Andy Roddick
ch  Stanislas Wawrinka Andy Roddick Retired
Stanislas Wawrinka © Tennistalk.com

  • Decisions have to be made after Rome farce

    5/11/08 12:32 AM | David Cox
    What looked set to be an enthralling Saturday afternoon’s tennis in Rome was turned into little more than a farce as first Andy Roddick then Radek Stepanek pulled out during their respective semi-finals

    It left the packed Foro Italico arena quite stunned. At least Stepanek lasted a set, Roddick only managed 3 games before a back strain sustained chasing down a Wawrinka forehand left him doubled up in pain and forced him to retire immediately

    “I felt a little something last night in my back when I was getting treatment. Then, one wrong movement and I had a complete spasm,” the American explained afterwards. “I can't really move my left arm right now. You can't really play around that.“

    It’s been an embarrassment for the tournament with 4 key matches in the past few rounds turning into no-shows, hammering home the need for the ATP to step in and make big calendar changes at the end of the season if they want the top players in peak condition at the major tournaments. Something will clearly have to give. Even in non-Olympic years the clay season calendar is extremely congested and is followed immediately by the grass season with not even a week’s break. Fantastic for the fans but it’s stretching the top players to breaking point.

    There are several possible solutions. The most controversial is to cut one of the clay masters series. Monte Carlo looked up for the chop but this move was met with furious resistance from the tournament officials and the likes of Rafael Nadal. If they do go along this route, then surely Hamburg is the one to go ? I’ve never been a fan of back-to-back masters series and with players often arriving drained from Rome, Hamburg suffers one of the biggest last-minute withdrawal rates.

    The second idea is to lengthen the clay-court season by a couple of weeks and add a week’s break between Rome and Hamburg, so pushing the grass-court season further into July. To avoid this lengthening the year-long calendar, it’s possible that some of the smaller ATPs at the start of July could have to go - tournaments like Gstaad, Stuttgart, Newport, Indianapolis - fairly small events which rarely attract the big names, who are instead recuperating for August’s hard-court onslaught.

    Whatever it is, a solution must be found to avoid repeats of Rome

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Comments

The fans will most likely lose out either way but the second suggestion to drop some of the smaller tournaments in the US sounds like it would have the smallest impact to fans. The players do deserve more of a break.

BernieEliza , 5/13/08 3:18 AM


Hamburg is already being downgraded in status, so I doubt most of the top players will show up anymore. But yes, something else even in addition to that probably has to be done.

RickyDimon , 5/13/08 4:00 AM


It would be better to space out the Masters Series tournaments with the smaller tournaments in between - rather than bunch up the big ones. The bulk of the players on the ATP tour need the smaller tournaments to rack up points.... while the big guns who are more likely to go deeper into the draw have time to recover.

chand , 5/13/08 10:23 AM



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