Nick Kyrgios is not a big fan of clay. The Australian star has deliberately skipped the clay swing since 2017 and the 5 seasons in which he played the French Open, his best showing was making it only till the Round of 32. So when Andy Roddick had a staunch verdict on the amount of grass tournaments being played before Wimbledon, Nick Kyrgios joined in the debate to agree with him.
Roddick, the 3-time Wimbledon finalist, said in a recent interaction with Tennis Channel that he was in favor of an extended grass court season, which should include at least one Masters 1000 tournament. The former World No.1 does not mind it even at the cost of a shredded hard or clay court season since Wimbledon forms an important tradition in the sport.
While this video went viral on social media, what really stole the show was Nick Kyrgios’ comment on Instagram. Kyrgios had no hesitation in taking a dig at the ATP and accused them of scheduling pointless ATP 250 clay tournaments. He wrote in the comments in a conversation with a fan –
“Nah watching 250’s on clay is where it’s at.”
In separate press conferences at the Wimbledon 2018 and 2022 editions, Nick Kyrgios had talked about grass being neglected and bias towards players from Europe due to more clay court tournaments being held. As an Australian, he has found it hard to keep up with the demands of the sport and expressed his love for grass.
“Clay-court tennis for me is not tennis at all. There is no creativity. It’s all about fitness and lasting out there. There’s none of the skill that is needed for grass.
“European players can play clay court all year around and finish like 70 in the world. And they don’t even have to leave. Where an Australian player has to travel six months a year and not see his family, not see his friends. I have played five events this year and I am like 50 in the world and I have to travel. I don’t even know some of the people in top 100 I am being serious,” Kyrgios was quoted as saying.
Both Andy Roddick and Nick Kyrgios know what they are talking about since they have made it to the finals of the Wimbledon. While Kyrgios lost to Novak Djokovic in the 2022 final, Roddick lost on all the 3 occasions to Roger Federer. Interestingly, Djokovic needs one more title win to level Federer’s all-time record 8 wins at SW19.
Novak Djokovic had age on his side and has bigger numbers now than Roger Federer in many aspects, but was the Swiss legend actually undone by the ‘establishment’?
Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic Gained From Less Grass Events at Expense of Roger Federer
Roger Federer has been slammed by his rivals’ strong fanbases of winning more ATP 250 titles on his way to end up with a whopping 103 championship wins. However, at the same time, Federer was denied the opportunity to play Masters 1000 events on grass, a surface which made him a household name globally.
The tournament for which most players get the least amount of matches and time to prepare for, is Wimbledon. So transitioning to grass from clay is a huge challenge. This is why usually Roger Federer opted to play at the Halle Championships in Germany, an ATP 500 tournament.
In Halle, no player has been able to break Federer’s record of winning 10 titles. After that, he would advance directly to play Wimbledon because of the training he needed and the fact that alongside Halle simultaneously, the other ATP 500 event, the Queen’s Club tournament in London is held. No other top tournament is held between these two and the Grand Slam.
Winning 10 in Halle, 8 at Wimbledon and 1 Stuttgart Open title meant that Roger Federer ended up with 19 titles out of the 27 grass court finals he was part of. 27 is a high number as compared to Novak Djokovic’s 13 finals on the surface despite having played for more than 20 years on the ATP Tour. Djokovic has won 8 out of those 13 and 7 of those have come only at Wimbledon.
To top it all, Rafael Nadal has a worse record in this regard than both Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic. Nadal made it to only 7 grass event finals and won 4 of them, 2 of which were at Wimbledon.
There is no doubt that the Spaniard made the most of the Masters 1000s (Madrid, Rome, Monte Carlo) and the French Open, which contribute to 40 titles out of the 92 he has won throughout his career. Another 23 of his titles came on ATP 250 and 500 tournaments on clay. This means that Nadal managed to win just 29 titles on other surfaces combined.
Novak Djokovic, the ultimate hard court specialist, made the most of tournaments on outdoor and indoor hard courts, on which he won a combined 71 titles out of the 98 he has at the moment. Impressively, Roger Federer ended up winning 73 such titles since he was versatile enough to rack up good achievements on the two surfaces.
The only aspect in which Roger Federer fell too short, was on clay since he only managed 11 titles on it, while Novak Djokovic won 19 in an era dominated by Rafael Nadal. This is why Federer ended up with just 28 ATP 1000 title wins, while Nadal has 36 of those and Djokovic went on break both their records to cross the 40 mark.
Novak Djokovic has achieved legendary status on his own ability. But the thought that had Roger Federer had a Masters 1000 and more events on grass to play on, more of his records would have either never been broken or taken a lot of time for someone to do so. That would have turned the GOAT debate hugely in his favor, as he was 5 years elder to both Djokovic and Nadal as well.
