Thursday, 10 May 2012

Madrid’s Smurf Clay looks cool


The elite tennis players may not like the new look blue Smurf clay in Madrid but as far as watching on TV it looks much better.  I suppose elite athletes are fine tuned to certain things but I am sure over time I think blue Smurf Clay will become acceptable.  Personally I cannot see how the colour of the clay makes any difference since colour makes no difference on a hard surface.  More likely it is the type of clay or the way the surface itself has been created that is the real issue, and even if it was the normal brick red clay it would still be slippery and difficult to play on.

Tennis players need to remember though this is an entertainment sport, and blue clay certainly makes it easier to see the ball.  And if Madrid wants to use that colour I see no reason why it should not be able to.  It works on the Madrid courts in a way it would never work at Roland Garros.

It was good to see Federer overcome the new sensation Milos Raonic, but I worry about tennis if someone like Raonic is the future.  I know sport goes through cycles but if the next phase of tennis stars is going to be like the 90’s over again then it doesn’t bode well for tennis.  No disrespect to Raonic he can play some nice shots and he nearly beat the great Swiss, but it was not exciting tennis with lots of rallies and this was on a clay court.  160 mile an hour super servers will ruin tennis.

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