Rafael Nadal, who qualified for the final of the Sony Ericsson on Friday afternoon, does respect college basketball but can’t stand the Madness.
“I respect 100% college basketball. I think it’s very important,” he said. He is also somewhat aware of the significance of the event. “I know it’s very important, the college basketball, because I see always the American players and the men in the locker room watching it.”
The reason behind his dislike of this American institution is simply based on a scheduling conflict.
“But, well, we can’t have the calendar thinking about the college basketball, no? So we are 100% disappointed about this decision of the ATP.”
CBS, the official broadcaster of both the Sony Ericsson Open finals and the NCAA basketball tournament, wants the finals of both events to be played over the same weekend.
The previous years, 8 weeks separated the Miami finals from the start of the French Open, in Paris, France, the second grand slam of the year and the pinnacle of the clay season. This year, the gap between the two is only 7 weeks.
Many believe that the reason why the ATP changed its schedule is because of the Olympics, while the Australian Open or the French Open did not move their dates on the calendar, neither did Wimbledon or the U.S. Open, which is scheduled to start one weel after the end of the Olympic tennis tournament.
With three clay court Masters Series events –Monte Carlo, Rome and Hamburg --, the biggest International Series event of the clay season, in Barcelona, Spain and a Davis Cup weekend to fit in, Nadal feels like he’s been robbed one week from his favorite time of the year.
His English, although much improved, is still tentative at best. But when it comes to talk about the clay season, he becomes very eloquent and his point comes across rather clearly.
“We have three Masters Series on clay during all the season, and we have three Masters Series in four weeks. So for us it’s terrible. And three Masters Series in the middle of the biggest tournament on clay in the world: Barcelona. So if you see the calendar, that is unbelievable. Everybody can say about the Olympics. It’s not for the Olympics. It’s because these two tournaments [Indian Wells and Miami, the two hardcourt Masters Series played in the U.S. in the spring] are one week later, because you have university or something like this, college basketball … For me it’s terrible. You know, I’m a clay player, but I can play very well on all surface. But play four weeks it’s impossible if you are playing well, no?”
Nadal is very polite and did not bring the issue up by himself. What triggered his rant was a remark about how European players complain about being in the United States for over a month and how he, unlike most of them, usually fares well in Indian Wells and Miami and seems comfortable being here.
“I’m very comfortable in the United States, but not for this time … the European players are, well, I don’t know, very angry about these decisions, no?”