Shortened season puts clay court players under pressure

With the 2008 French Open only weeks away, the top players in the ATP and WTA tours are starting to buckle under the pressure of a shortened clay court season brought about by the addition of Olympic tennis to the tournament schedule later in the year.

Rafael Nadal has been particularly vociferous in his complaints, which is hardly surprising given that the young Spaniard is faced with the challenge of protecting his clean sweep of clay court titles in a schedule so packed that the players have less than a week to recover between tournaments.

"These people are destroying Europe and Europe used to be a foundation of the tour," Nadal told the press. "I have some e-mail conversations with these people, but it is true that they end up doing what they like and I am getting tired of it all."

The longest break Rafael Nadal can look forward to is a week long breather in the run up to the 2008 French Open. The density of events means players become more exposed to injury, and Nadal faces the nightmare scenario of losing his clay court crown purely due to the physical stress created by continuous play.

Tennis fans don’t seem to be responding very well to the packed clay court schedule either, with ESPN dropping several of the US clay court events due to poor ratings.