ATP: Should Nadal only play on sand in the future?

Rafael Nadal is again unable to compete at the ATP World Tour Finals in London due to injury. In 2018, the Spaniard was only able to finish one of his twelve planned appearances on hard court – should “Rafa” play only on sand in the future?

Nadal took part in only nine tournaments throughout the 2018 calendar year – the 32-year-old was able to win just five of them. In addition to his beloved clay court tournaments in Monte Carlo, Barcelona, Rome and Paris, the 17-time Grand Slam winner also won the hard court event in Toronto.

The victory in Canada was also Nadal’s only appearance on hard court, which the Spaniard ended “normally”. Otherwise, injuries forced him to perform tasks or cancel before the tournaments. For example, the clay court king was unable to compete in Cincinnati, Paris-Bercy and London, and had to give up at major events in Australia and New York.

It is an open secret that especially the knees of the former world number one suffer extremely under the conditions on hard court. Therefore Nadal often demanded to reduce the number of tournaments to hardcourt and to play more on sand and grass instead.

The fact that ATP does not comply with the wishes of the Spaniard and that the majority of tournaments are held on hard pitches has one main reason: the construction of sand and grass pitches is much more expensive and time-consuming. Nevertheless, the players’ association should think about it a bit, as the many injuries at the end of the season are no coincidence.

But back to Nadal: The fact that the elevenfold French Open Champion is still in the absolute world class on hard court is proven by his results on this surface. The victory in Toronto will be joined by a semi-final at the US Open and a quarter-final at the Australian Open.

Nevertheless, the question for the second in the world rankings is: Should he only put his long-term health on the line for a few more trophies? There already seems to have been a small rethink: Nadal reduces his participation on Hardcourt to the bare essentials and puts his focus clearly on the sand season.

A glance into the past shows that this has always been the case with the best clay court player of all time. Nevertheless, only three participations in hard court events in 2018 speak volumes. Already in the pre-season Nadal finished only 10 appearances on this surface. For comparison: In the same year Dominic Thiem played at 18 Hartplatz events, Alexander Zverev played at 16.

It can be assumed that the Spaniard will skip one or the other event on Hardcourt again and again in the coming years. But Nadal won’t do without these tournaments altogether: After all, the Majorcan wants to triumph a second time in Australia and at the World Tour Finals. And these events take place on his so unloved underground.