While the Madrid Open is one of the biggest events in professional tennis, it is not one steeped in a lot of history. One might say that its most memorable occurrence from the past was the 2012 edition of the tournament when it was played on “blue clay.”
In his 2014 book released book “Court Confidential: Inside The World of Tennis,” Neil Harman writes about the infamous 2012 edition of Madrid, which is excerpted below. Click here Court Confidential: Inside the World of Tennis: Harman, Neil: 9781937559427: Amazon.com: Books to order and read the entire book by Harman via paperback, Kindle or audio book.
There was little that was aesthetically pleasing about the site, it was like tennis being housed in several large aluminum tins, the tournament was played at altitude three weeks before the French Open – which did not help in preparation – and now there was the additional and, to some people, intractable decision to play on blue clay.
Roger Federer was ready to give the blue surface a chance, even though he was as outraged as anyone that it was introduced at the event in the manner of a fait accompli. ‘I have no idea how this will be,’ he said. ”We’re against it, Nadal said so vehemently and I support him. He fears that a tradition is getting broken and that one tournament director wants to have blue clay, the other one grey, green or red one. I’m also for traditions but I can understand it that new things have to get tested. The clay in Madrid has to be perfect though otherwise it will be a debacle for the tournament. I’m against it because Nadal is against it and we would have other options. But the tournament director [Tiriac] has insisted ad nauseam that it will happen. In the end we said: ‘He does a lot of good things for tennis so we let him go with this one. But it isn’t good that he has such things in his hands.’
Djokovic was equally skeptical. ‘I understand that we all want to see certain change and improvement in our tennis world but on the other hand, you need to hear out what the players say, especially the top players because we need to feel our opinion matters. That was not the case this time.’
The rumblings of discontent were profound. Gerard Tsobanian, Tiriac’s right hand man and the tournament’s executive manager, called for good faith from the players. “Is it clay? It is. The colour is different? Yes. Do you see the ball better? Yes. Is it a better experience for us all? Yes. Then what arguments can you have against it? Rafael Nadal has revolutionized tennis, he is a revolutionary, an innovator in his physical game, the rotation of the ball and the sleeveless shirts. We are a young and innovative tournament – he is a young and innovative player. We are identical. Nadal could be our icon.”
The trouble was, Nadal did not want to be Madrid’s icon – indeed he did not really want to be within a hundred miles of the place. ‘Why block us?’ Tsobanian argued. ‘[Bernie] Ecclestone changes the rules every week in F1, he adapts to whatever his clients demand. This reminds me of the controversy over using models as ball-girls eight years ago. Eight years later we are still doing it because from the start we did it professionally.’
Tiriac added that with a prize packet of in excess of $10 million at the combined ATP–WTA event, competitors had a duty as professionals to get on with matches. ‘That kind of money does not come from Mother Teresa,’ he said. ‘The players have to give back as well.’ Tiriac and his tournament director Manuel Santana, the 1966 Wimbledon champion, promised the court would slowly improve, explaining that an excess of caution at the construction stage in order to prevent injuries resulted in producing a surface that was too slick.
‘The court is slippery and I apologize,’ Tiriac said. We wanted to make sure that we had no player injuries, no ankle problems. As a result, the court experts rolled the base with too much pressure. When the blue sand was put on top it was unable to mix with the base; that created the slippery conditions. On TV the pictures are unbelievable. We are working hard to fix everything else.
Before Federer had been able to familiarize himself with the blue [I had to confess it did make following the flight of the ball an awful lot easier than on red clay], he was almost out of the event. The Swiss was heavily challenged in before rallying past Canada’s Raonic 4–6, 7–5, 7–6, having to save seven of eight break points, and withstand twenty-one aces in two hours and fourteen minutes. ‘I felt I was on top the whole match doing all the right things,’ Raonic said. ‘I’ll probably be happier with the whole outcome in a few days’ time but now is not the moment.’
Federer, who captured the title three years before when the tournament transitioned from indoor hard to clay, was seeking his first clay title since completing his career grand slam in Paris in 2009. ‘Right now, I’m just playing good tennis and it’s a big win because wins like this can create great things,’ said Federer. ‘It was pretty much a big struggle for me tonight but the level was pretty good and I’m happy where I am in the season.’
Madrid was one of the combined events on the tour, so that the women were hosted with equal celebrity, but they needed something quite outstanding to deny the men their usual dominance
of the headlines, interest and crowds (very often there was barely a quorum to watch what would be considered a very decent women’s match). Ricardo Sanchez, a veteran Spanish coach on the women’s tour who had taken charge of Russian Nadia Petrova after his short spell working for Caroline Wozniacki ended abruptly, had some rather fanciful things to say to El Pais, the most respected of journals, which was perhaps not quite what the WTA would have wanted to hear.
‘The thing about Venus and Serena [Williams] is they do not want to play [tennis],’ Sanchez said. ‘They compete now just to make the London [Olympic] Games. They are more into celebrity and fashion. If Serena [played consistently] she would be the best in the world. The Williams are like sprinters – they cannot stand the long rallies, and if you get four balls back, they can’t play.When you go from there, they die.’
Sanchez, obviously getting well into his stride, added that Victoria Azarenka’s No. 1 ranking was in danger – ‘even though she has improved her forehand’ – and that Maria Sharapova ‘hasn’t improved anything in the last five years’. Sanchez was a loose-cannon but what he said made headlines for a day.
Though he would undoubtedly have given Sanchez a piece of his mind had he read his comment, Tiriac was grateful at least that the women did not kick up any kind of fuss about the court,
whatever its shade.
‘Women are much tougher than men, so we have children. Men are flojitos,’ Serena Williams said. ‘That’s why we have the babies, you guys could never handle kids. We ladies don’t complain we just do our best. On the WTA, we are real performers, we are not about going out there and being weenies.’
Serena had dropped one set all week, the first 6–1 to Caroline Wozniacki in the third round which suggested the Dane might be putting something together, though the American clearly took affront and won the second and third sets comfortably. In the next round Serena dropped only four games to Maria Sharapova and then, having been given a bit of a test in the semi-finals by Lucie Hradecká of the Czech Republic, she positively gorged on Victoria Azarenka in the final. ‘My place is on a tennis court, that’s where I’m amazing,’ she said.
The non-appearance of Murray citing a back injury and the lack of a complete desire on the part of Djokovic and Nadal to play at all (Rafa’s performance in his three-set loss to Fernando Verdasco bordered on a tank) left the field open for someone who might grab this particular Spanish bull by the horns. Roger Federer, as only he could, stepped forward.
After the fright against Raonic, he had played with consummate flair and reached the final where he would face Tomáš Berdych, the Czech who had lost only twelve games in reaching the semi-final, where he had the edge in two tie-breaks against Juan Martin Del Potro of Argentina. The final tested both men to the limit. Berdych can rarely have played as well as he did and not won a match. Federer squeaked it 3–6, 7–5, 7–5, emerging from an unsettling backdrop to take the title he had now won on hard courts, red clay and blue in the Spanish capital.
