Thursday’s player quotes about the blue clay courts being used at this year’s Madrid Open:
Rafael Nadal
The ATP and the tournament can do what they want. I tried my best since I arrived here on Thursday trying to prepare as best I can for the tournament. I wasn’t good enough to adapt my game to this court. The only thing I know is that if things continue like this, I’m very sad, but next year it will be one less tournament in my calendar.I think the tournament is great but that is a bad decision.
The movements are very important for me and here I cannot move so I cannot hit the ball the way that I want.
I think the tournament is great but that’s a bad decision. Change the bad decisions or continue with the bad decisions so everybody is free to do what they want. That’s fine. It’s not the day to talk a lot about that it’s the day to talk about … Fernando played better than me and that’s why I lost and not because of the court. It is the same for both of us and that’s the real thing.
If you put the Cincinnati tournament on grass just before the U.S. Open do you think people are going to be happy? I don’t think so. That’s a similar situation. It’s not drastic I am just being consistent.
I am not prepared to risk something happening next year if nothing changes.
I am going to Rome now with maybe a bit of a lack of confidence which I don’t deserve after all the work I have put in here. The color has to change and it has to be a proper clay court.”
I think that the surface is the same for all. It’s equal for everyone. In tennis there are some things that make a difference, that differentiate one from the other; the way that you stand on the court, control you have and obviously mobility is another issue and to commit a few errors in here is not good for me. It’s not on my side. You get the control from your legs and here you cannot get it from your legs and afterwards on clay the difference is quite simple. The one that wins is the one that commits less errors, is able to move better. In here you can have the point more or less dominated and they strike quite well and you’re out of the game so I think that the games are equal and anyone can win. The one who wins is Always the one who deserves it the most. I’ve lost, I wasn’t good enough to adapt to the surface and perhaps there are others who can adapt and they will have many victories.
Novak Djokovic
They are saying it’s exactly the same as the red clay which is not true because there is a big difference.
You are tripping and slipping and sliding all the time and winner will be the one who doesn’t get hurt until the end of the week because a lot of players fell down.
Generally it’s a new experience and the way it looks this year hopefully the last experience.
 
Roger Federer
He (Nadal) was against it from the start and so was I so obviously for him to go out in the third round is disappointing.
He never felt comfortable on the surface, it is a tough surface and that only makes you angry even more.
It is a tough surface and that can only add to the anger even more. It’s a tough loss and the frustration and I can understand what he means.