Novak Djokovic says the world’s top tennis players are angry that next month’s Madrid Masters, a key tournament in the build-up to the French Open, will be played on blue clay.
“Sometimes change is good. I like innovative and creative people,” said Djokovic after reaching the Monte Carlo Masters semi-finals on Friday.
“But, on the other hand, it’s going to be the only blue clay court tournament in the world, first time ever in history. To be honest with you, as far as I know, most of the top players I talked to, nobody has agreed.”
Djokovic named Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal as sharing his doubts about the wisdom of the publicity-generating experiment from master showman Ion Tiriac.
“I’ve never played on blue clay, Rafa hasn’t, Roger hasn’t. We’re going on there and we’re going to play for the first time ever.
“We don’t even know if it’s a natural blue clay because natural clay is a red clay.”
Djokovic added: “I’m not really too happy about it. It’s going to be interesting to step on the blue clay. All credit to the tournament. I’m not blaming them. They fight for their own.”
But the Serb said that changes need to be made to the rule which allowed former president of the ATP, Adam Helfant, to back the change in the surface.
“There is a certain rule that the president is able to make decisions by himself without having players agree. That rule has to be changed because it’s not fair. That’s what happened last year. That is why Madrid has a blue clay.”