The Shanghai Masters 1000 was known as one of the fastest courts tournaments on the ATP tour and it is no coincidence that it was much loved by powerful players from the baseline, but the situation has changed lately. The organizers of the penultimate Masters 1000 of the season have decided to slow down the surface and the first complaints have emerged, with insiders and fans wondering the reason behind this strange choice.
The last player to blastthe courts of Shanghai was World No.4Taylor Fritz, who had to work hard to beat Hungarian player Fabian Marozsan on his debut. The American ace who didn't have much time to get used to these conditions having reached the final in Tokyo earlier this week prevailed in the decisive tiebreak and was very tired at the end of the clash, before expressing all his frustration during his press conference.
Fritz is not happy
"The court is incredibly slow," Fritz confided without any hesitation. "For me it is a really negative change and I don't understand the reason for this choice by the organizers. Last year the courts were quite fast, while the balls were slow, so the situation was positive from my point of view. The surface was not too slow in the last edition. However, the organizers have decided to slow down the camps this year. The balls remained quite slow and become huge after a few games, not forgetting the humidity that makes the conditions even tougher. The game is significantly slowed down in this way, it seems that the ball does not move forward" concluded Taylor.
He had achieved excellent results in the last part of the 2024 season, including the semifinal at the Shanghai Masters 1000. Fritz had been defeated by Serbian legend Novak Djokovic here a year ago, before reaching the final at the Nitto ATP Finals in Turin. The American star will try to do better again this year, but it will not be easy to express his potential to the fullest on such a slow surface.
