“It’s the worst I’ve played on”: the reasons behind the poor condition of the Santiago Open courts that are causing tennis players to explode

The 2024 Chile Open started with controversy. Again, because of the main court. The conditions of the Jaime Fillol court have been a headache for the ATP Santiago in recent editions, often generating obvious discomfort for the players. One of the first was Roberto Carballés Baena, who during his duel in the first round exploded on the clay of the foothills.

A ball that didn’t bounce and left them 3-5 in the first set was the straw that broke the camel’s back. He stopped the game, shouted at the referee and even demanded to change the field due to the poor conditions. “What do you want me to tell you, That the tournament is worthless? That you can’t play on the court?… It seems a shame to me that an ATP is played on this court , this seems dangerous to me for the players. “I hope this tournament doesn’t happen again,” he said harshly after his defeat in the middle. Clay.

“It’s not tennis, in the end it becomes a raffle. With the constant fear of getting injured and on top of that with rebounds that the ball doesn’t bounce at all. I felt like I might get hurt. Every time he was forced, I was afraid to squeeze my leg because it kept digging in. In fact, I end up with back pain,” he concluded.

Postcards that added to the resounding fall of the Spaniard Pedro Martínez when he went to get a ball in the net in the first round and that of another ball which could not rebound due to the release of clay court, during the qualifying match between the Peruvian Ignacio Buse and the Argentinean Francisco Comesaña.

This Tuesday, even in the duel won by Juan Manuel Cerúndolo against Yannick Hanfmann, he had knee problems due to the poor condition of the main field. The Argentinian was consulted on this subject, although he clarified: “It’s not the best terrain, the weather doesn’t help either, it’s a very dry climate, the terrain becomes very soft, it breaks when running. I really like the tournament in general, you can’t just focus on the field. It’s a great tournament, they treat us very well. “You have to adapt.”

After the defeat against Barrios, Christian Garin also pointed the finger at the court. “As for the court, I don’t like to say it because I really enjoy this tournament, but it’s by far the worst I’ve played on in ATP tournaments. I don’t know what made things so bad, I think with the peloton in this state anything can happen, anyone can win,” Gago said.

The situation obviously looks negative at the tournament, mainly because it is not a new problem. At a time when the debate on the South American tour is underway, Santiago is trying to put behind him his big problem from the first days of the event.

Unfortunately for the country’s most important tennis competition, this is not the first time that its figures have complained about the state of the court. Without going any further, the 2023 edition also had critical voices on the state of the court, which was mainly affected by the exhibition, on hard, that Rafael Nadal had made there just two months before the start of the tournament.

On this occasion, the production company in charge of the friendly match between the Spaniard and the Chilean chose to build the cement field on top of the clay one, leaving it with deep damage. The organization of the Chile Open tried to remedy this, but the deadlines did not work.

Fabio Fognini was the most explicit on this occasion, clearly specifying his position: “It’s difficult to talk about tennis today because if I’m honest, the court is pretty bad. There are quite a few bad shots… If the tournament needs to improve anything, it’s the court. “I spoke with my teammates in the locker room and we are not happy about it.” were part of his comments at a press conference.

We also remember Diego Schwartzman’s constant complaints during his match against Nicolás Jarry, where he repeatedly complained to the referee, asking for the pitch to be repaired. It was the tone of this meeting to see the cancheros try to equalize the field.

Garin was another who spoke out on the subject in 2023: “I don’t know what it will look like from the outside, but the court has sometimes not worked in my favor.” he estimated.

After last year’s problems, a complete renovation of the main court was announced this year. The same tournament director confirmed it, in an interview with La Tercera: “Part of the learning that (the construction of) the National Stadium left us was the state of the pitches, which went really very well . In fact, we asked the Kinsa company, which built them, to build from scratch the central court of San Carlos de Apoquindo, which we are paying for with the Católica,” said Catalina Fillol.

A job that could not avoid problems. In fact, it is very likely that it was the same renovation that caused the problems with the compaction of the pitch, which remained visibly loose after the matches on Tuesday February 27.

From the organization, Catalina Fillol, the director of the event, spoke of the poor state of the grounds. “We are taking steps to incorporate the necessary improvements. We have been working for months to have a first-rate central court. At the moment we have reinforced our maintenance teams to intensify the humidity on the ground. Because of what happened before, We increased irrigation at night, increased the use of rollers and the number of pots to better compact the clay (…). We find it to be a much more difficult surface. The matches are a lot longer, the points are longer and there are indeed false pots, but it makes it more difficult, it makes the matches more entertaining,” he said.