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The green, green grass of Majorca
Rafael Nadal has come up with a novel idea to improve his grasscourt play by laying a lawn in his Mediterranean island home of Majorca.
Rafael Nadal has come up with a novel idea to improve his grasscourt play by laying a lawn in his Mediterranean island home of Majorca.
Nadal was sent packing from Wimbledon on Thursday by little-known Gilles Muller of Luxembourg thus ending for now his dream of becoming the first man since Bjorn Borg in 1980 to complete the elusive French Open/Wimbledon same-year double.
Roland Garros is on red clay where the bounce is slow, high and dusty while Wimbledon is the exact opposite where the bounce is fast, low and non-dusty.
The tournaments are held just two weeks apart giving players the minimum of time to adapt from one to the other, which is a particularly acute problem for the winner in Paris.
Australian legend Rod Laver was the first man to manage it and Borg famously achieved it three times up until 1980.
But since then the challenge has become increasingly tougher as specific surface specialists have appeared.
Great grasscourters like John McEnroe, Pete Sampras, Boris Becker and Stefan Edberg failed to win a single French Open title between them.
Claycourt kings like Guillermo Vilas, Ivan Lendl, Mats Wilander and Gustavo Kuerten, found the grass at the All England club a daunting prospect.
Only Andre Agassi managed some measure of versatility winning Wimbledon in 1992 and the French Open seven years later.
But recent developments aimed at quickening the pace in Paris and slowing the action in London have raised expectations that a double winner could once again emerge to emulate Laver and Borg.
The brilliance of Roger Federer is the best bet for a double winner and the emergence this year of the dynamic Nadal has led to predictions that he could be the man.
But the lesson that Muller dished out on Thursday proved he still has a long way to go.
Nadal, a born and bred claycourter, agrees and says that more practice on grass is what he needs and that could mean sowing the seeds in Majorca.
"Not at my home, because it is too small, but it is one option I am looking at in Majorca," he said.
"I really want to play well on this surface and to do that I need to play more often on it."
As an example, the 19-year-old Nadal plumps for Australian Lleyton Hewitt who won the Wimbledon title in 2002 despite being a counter-punching baseliner like himself.
"It was the same for Federer, who lost his first few games at Wimbledon," said Nadal.
"But he said that to play well on grass, you have got to enjoy playing on the surface.
"Me, I love it. I know I am no Federer, but with hard work, I am prepared to change the way I play and do what is necessary to win here."
