Who is playing where? Nadal is already training on sand, Djokovic on hard court
The planned program for the tennis restart is really tough, should everything go as planned. This raises the question of who sets their priorities where. Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic may already have given a hint here.
by Florian Goosmann
last edit: Jul 16, 2020, 06:06 pm
The ATP tour is set to start again on August 14, and the 500 tournament in Washington is planned. Followed by the Masters tournament in Cincinnati (from August 22 at the Flushing Meadows facility), the US Open (from August 31), the Masters events in Madrid (from September 13) and Rome (from September 20) and Roland Garros (from September 27). Amongst other things.
As soon as the US Open ended, it would go from hard court to sand, for those in a hurry (or early departures) the Generali Open in Kitzbühel is scheduled for the second week of the US Open (from September 8).
In addition to the question of whether everything takes place at all (keyword: Corona), there is of course also the question of who will play what (keyword: tight schedule). Dominic Thiem is of course a hot candidate for the full program (keyword: frequent player).
But what do the older people like Novak Djokovic (33 years) and Rafael Nadal (34 years) do? The latter is the current defending champion in both the US Open and the French Open; two grand slam tournaments within five weeks seem extremely ambitious even for the unbreakable "bull from Manacor". So it is quite possible that Nadal and Djokovic will choose the tournament with the greatest personal prospects of success. Specifically: Djokovic as the hard court giant the US Open, Nadal as the best clay court player of all time the French Open. Including preparation.
Nadal on sand, Djokovic on hard court, Berrettini everywhere
First indications for this? Could you get here. So there are current pictures of Rafael Nadal training on sand (in his Academy in Manacor) ...
After the previous ones on hard court ...
And from Djokovic again current recordings on hard court in the Academy of Janko Tipsarevic ...
After supposedly training on sand before.
What do we take away from it? Everyone can decide for themselves. Perhaps the idea that Matteo Berrettini has recently refreshed: The professional per se can quickly change his mind when in doubt. Berrettini was still at THIEMs7 (on sand) on Saturday, on Sunday at the Ultimate Tennis Showdown (on hard court) and on Tuesday in Berlin (on lawn). And with all of that, he was also quite successful .