San Carlos de Apoquindo’s center court has been the target of criticism from the tournament’s most experienced players. Bad pits and loose clay with some of the complaints.
Christian Garin (100th) took the microphone and once again brought to the fore one of the most controversial subjects of this Chile Open: the state of the main court at San Carlos de Apoquindo. A court that hosted the most important engagements of the ATP in Santiago but that since the first day has been criticized by the tennis players themselves.
And it is that after four days of competition it is impossible not to recognize that the track has not passed the test. On the one hand, there are the constant false points that the ground gives and, on the other hand, the weak compactness of the clay, especially at the bottom. A repeat victim of this was Diego Schwartzman (37th), who in his second round match against Nicolás Jarry (87th) repeatedly highlighted this situation.
And it is that the “Little” has been affected by the situation. He had constant pleas with the umpire and in several end changes he asked the pitchers to flatten some of the field, having broken it when he slipped to reach Jarry’s deep shots. Whenever that happened, he marked off the areas as if it were a bullet mark.
He even shared the complaints with his coaching staff, whom he spoke to whenever a fake boat affected the development of the game. Of course, once the match was over, the Argentine avoided referring to the state of the field during the post-match conference.
But who spoke was Fabio Fognini (82nd). The Italian shot directly at the state of the track after losing to Tomás Etcheverry (76th) on his Santiago debut, saying the organization must undertake the task of improving the pitch to foster the level of the ‘event. “It’s hard to talk about tennis today because to be honest the court is pretty bad. There are quite a few bad peaks” was his first comment during his last press conference in San Carlos de Apoquindo.
One that followed with more criticism: “If the tournament should improve anything, it is the field. I spoke to my teammates in the locker room and we are not happy about it. To this day, for people to enjoy it more and for us to show our best version, it is very important”, added the 2019 Monte Carlo Masters 1000 champion.
Now it was Christian Garin’s turn. The Chilean said goodbye to the tournament yesterday and in the press conference after his defeat he was clear about the state of the pitch. “I don’t know what it will look like from the outside, but the pitch hasn’t favored me at times.” launched the champion of the Chile Open in 2021.
Sentence in which, although he does not point directly to the court due to his fall against Sebastián Báez (35°), he exposes his annoyance at a repetitive theme that occurs in national tennis. Problems for court states have been present in Challenger tournaments, ATP tournaments and even several Davis Cup series, so this is not something new for the medium.
Of course, in this case, the complications with the terrain would have several explanations. According to sources consulted by El Deportivo, the problems on pre-Andean clay began with the exhibition between Rafael Nadal and Alejandro Tabilo played at the same venue at the end of November. For the friendly game, it was decided to put a cement track on top of the brick dust track, which caused problems for him. Work was done to repair everything, but it was not possible.
Eventually, another explanation came. Jaume Munar (66th) who mentioned all this subject after his victory against Alejandro Tabilo, in a match played on Monday evening and which had the state of the field as the main protagonist.
In this match false rebounds were recurrent, to the point that in the tie-break the Spaniard got an ace exclusively because the ball had a bad bounce and had not reached the bottom line to be answered by the Chilean . “From what I have been informed it is difficult for the tracks to be much better due to weather problem, due to drought it is not easy to compact the track so here is a question of acceptance. The truth is that I don’t think there will be any more comments on this because it will be like this all week. Beyond that, it’s true that I threw the ace in the tie-break 4-3, but it’s also true that in the five-point tie-break, four bounced fatally “, he commented on this occasion.
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Source: Latercera
I’m Rose Brown , a journalist and writer with over 10 years of experience in the news industry. I specialize in covering tennis-related news for Athletistic, a leading sports media website. My writing is highly regarded for its quick turnaround and accuracy, as well as my ability to tell compelling stories about the sport.
