Tennis "The King of Clay" has spoken! Retired legend Nadal calls for two major reforms

Nadal. (File photo, Associated Press)

[Reporter Lu Yangxuan/Comprehensive Report] Spanish retired legend Rafael Nadal has suffered from injuries many times in his career. He said that if the tour can increase the number of events on clay and grass, it may reduce the physical burden on players. He also called for the tennis ranking system to be reformed and to calculate rankings based on the results of the past two years.

The new generation of players Carlos Alcaraz from Spain and Jannik from Italy Sinner has been out for a period of time this year due to injuries, and the physical burden of this sport on players has once again become the focus. The "King of Clay" Nadal was recently interviewed by the Associated Press and was asked if he had ever hoped that the number of hard-court events could be reduced and the ratio of clay-court and grass-court events could be increased. He pointed out that when he was still playing, it was difficult to strive for such a change, because the outside world would think that he only wanted to use his dominance on clay courts to gain more advantages. "This is true even on grass, because I think grass is my second best surface."

Nadal pointed out, "But now I can honestly say that I don't see many sports being played on this surface. This is the fact that in tennis, we play most of the time on a surface that is quite impactful on the body and joints. In the end, we also have to pay the price."

In addition, Nadal also believes that the current ranking system in tennis should be reformed. Following the example of golf, it should adopt a rolling ranking system based on the results of the past two years, instead of only counting the results of the past year like the current tennis rankings. He believes that the use of a two-year ranking system can give players "a little more freedom to make better decisions" and more time to recover from injuries, without worrying about a rapid decline in their world rankings. In addition, he also agrees with the views of many current players that extending the ATP Thousand-Point Masters to a two-week format is "a wrong decision."