Madrid Open 2012: Tournament Rightfully Promises Changes to 'Smurf' Clay

The blue clay at the Madrid Open has not been a big hit with some of the bigger names in tennis. It reached the point where Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic threatened to stop playing in the event if changes were not made.

And when two of the game's top stars make a threat like that, it is going to garner some attention.  

Apparently, the tournament's promoter, Ion Tiriac, was one of the people whose attention was grabbed. Tiriac was quoted on sports.ndtv.com as saying: 

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It's true it's slippery, but the clay won't be like this next year.

"

Tiriac is addressing what seems to be the main concern with the surface: it's traction. Rafael Nadal summed up the problems with the surface in this quote captured by Yahoo! Sports' Chris Chase: 

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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. 

"

To sum it all up, this surface is a huge failure. The best thing this event had going for it was the fact that it was a great tuneup for the French Open.

It gave players an opportunity to fine-tune their clay-court skills, while getting ready for the French Open. Now, they tweaked the surface, and the clay plays completely differently than the surface at the French.

This smurf clay is certainly eye-catching. Whether it catches the eye in a pleasing way or not is dependent on the observer. 

The merits of the possibility of trying to get this colored surface to work are debatable. What isn't, is that the way it is playing now. To their credit, they seem to be coming to this realization.