Cincinnati, Ohio - Rafael Nadal has blasted executive suite at the ATP for an inhuman hardcourt summer which is extracting an injury toll on the fittest of players.
The verbal serve from Spain's well-respected world number two won't go down well with embattled boss Etienne de Villiers, whose organisation is embroiled in a lawsuit with the relegated Hamburg event with 75-million dollars in damages at stake.
"The top management of ATP are always thinking about playing more and more tournaments on this kind of surface. I think it's not a good way," said Nadal, the hulking specimen who admits that even he is feeling the pain of a near-nonstop schedule.
"If I look in the locker room and the trainers' room, everybody has problems. This is the hardest surface for the body, that's for sure."
The Beijing Olympics - to be skipped by the likes of Andy Roddick, Richard Gasquet and Amelie Mauresmo - are only adding to the pressure, shoe-horned in as they are in August.
Nadal's main complaint is that too many tournament are played on the most brutal of surfaces - hardcourt - in the heat and humidity of the North American summer.
"That's a big mistake, in my opinion, for the tour," said the world number two. "If you saw the players, how many injuries the players have in the last months...
"You have to (consider) if we are going in the good way, a good direction or not."
For Nadal, the evidence of over-play is obvious: "Not everyone have the same (injuries), but I see a lot of player with problems in the knees and the feet. "Everybody is taped, you have to tape. It's very tough, this surface."
Four to the current eight obligatory Masters event are on hardcourt, the most North American of surfaces: Indian Wells, Miami, Canada and Cincinnati.
Nadal said that his own fitness is a constant worry. "I played a lot of matches in the last months - too many I think. This year I'm playing my best season - not on hard but on every surface. I'm confident for that reason. I feel a little bit better player," said the reigning French Open and Wimbledon champion.
"The top management of ATP are always thinking about playing more and more tournaments on this kind of surface. I think it's not a good way. (dpa)
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