Andy Roddick defended
Rafael Nadal's decision to withdraw from
Indian Wells
despite playing an exhibition against
Carlos Alcaraz in Las Vegas. The Spaniard
pulled out of a tournament for the third consecutive time this year, following
the Australian Open and Qatar Open, having played in only one event since his
return.
It was
expected that Nadal would be present at Tennis Paradise, but once again, his
physical condition was not optimal. The 22-times Grand Slam champion
prioritized more rest time before the clay season.
Nadal had
faced Alcaraz on March 3 in the Netflix Slam exhibition, which ended in favor
of Carlos with a score of 3-6, 6-4, (14-12), just four days before his
scheduled debut against Milos Raonic. Some criticized Nadal's participation in
the event if he wasn't in good physical shape, a point Andy Roddick addressed
on his podcast, Served with Andy Roddick:
“I was in
Vegas, able to see him play the exhibition – the Netflix Slam – with Carlos
Alcaraz. It’s not as if he pitched up to Vegas all of a sudden,” he said. “He
was in Palm Springs for a week before that, not because he cared about playing
in the exhibition, it’s because he cared about playing in Palm Springs.”
“Got there,
was getting used to the surface, trying to go through his paces properly.
Because he played in an exhibition, it doesn’t mean he is ready to go. Is he
gonna go rip his body apart if his goal is to win one match at Indian Wells?
“No, every
single decision that he has made from this point forward, and probably for the
last year and a half – maybe that is a slight stretch, but 15 months – has been
let’s work backwards from the possibility of playing Roland Garros.. That
didn’t work out last year, we didn’t see him until the New Year started, we
didn’t see him until January, he wanted to get some match reps in not because
he thought he could win the Australian Open, great if he finds something, but
because he wants to work backwards from the French Open."
“An exo is
very different … these guys put on a great show in Vegas, they did everything
they had to do to make it entertaining, but that is very different than going
through the best players on earth on a stickier surface,” Andy Roddick said. "Because
you can play two sets against someone you are friendly with when you know they
are compromised too doesn’t mean they are apples to apples. I think it is dumb
to treat it that way.
“Rafa gets
the benefit of the doubt, he didn’t just come over for an exhibition. He gets
the benefit of the doubt, he is not going to say ‘I am not playing Indian Wells
if he’s not,’ the former world No. 1 added. “It would
have been a perfectly acceptable explanation to say ‘Hey I don’t know if I can
play six or seven matches on a gritty hard court right now, but I can play a
couple of sets indoors and I look forward to playing the Netflix Slam’.
“No one
would have cared, that’s rational so I don’t know why all of a sudden we are up
in arms about that right now,” he concluded.