'Nadal wins it all on clay, other Spanish guys can't do anything about it'
In an interview with Punto de Break, former player Albert Portas commented on the Spanish tennis and Rafael Nadal's clay-court domination. Portas said: "Before, Spanish tennis was a more clay-court, but from my era players like Feliciano, Robredo, Ferrero, Ferrer were there. Everyone is fitted to any surface. Now there are not many specialists, everyone plays well on every court because as kids they already see that playing on clay is not enough. You should win everything on clay but they cannot because there is Rafa. There are fewer and fewer weeks on clay, that's why younger people are training harder on hard courts."
On how social media are having an impact on the younger players, Portas added: "At my time, when I was travelling, I was not calling anyone. There were no mobiles. I was not playing games so I was trying to have fun with cards. I did not watch films or movies at all. What I was doing was to have bigger contact with people, now what they do is to go to the hotel and check the mobile phone. It's a pity, there should be some balance. The mental evolution of the younger players goes through that step. Now they have everything, in the past, you had to open eyes, call an agency to book an air flight. At 15 years of age, they have an agent, the player doesn't absolutely do anything. Before, it was not like this."
from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2nzD6VR
No comments