Traditionalist Federer, innovator Nadal hold contrasting opinions

By Bill Scott Oct 20, 2006, 16:52 GMT

Madrid - The top two men in tennis hold contrasting views on the level of innovation required for the ATP to drive the game forward.

Spain's world number 2 Rafael Nadal is eager for change, revealing his 'businessman' side as well with a ringing endorsements of the new round-robin format proposal as well as launching a trade union-style debate regarding a lengthening of tournaments.

Roger Federer, on the other hand, is perfectly satisfied with the status quo, which has served him well on the way to longtime domination as world number 1.

The cautious Swiss has for instance never been a fan of the newly introduced electronic Hawk-eye line-calling system.

But he was smart enough to use it to his advantage to get out of a few sticky situations in a third-round win over Swede Robin Soderling at the Madrid Masters, with the computer confirming the Swiss eagle-eye when it came to disputed line-calls.

But even that display didn't impress the nine-time Grand Slam champion, who reached the Spanish quarter-finals on a match-point decided by the computer.

'I won't (be in favour of it), I will never be,' he said.

'It turned out to be a crazy end (to the match) and was kind of funny waiting for the result on the match point. This has never happened before and I thought it was kind of silly.

'But it wouldn't have made a difference to the end result.'

'I didn't like (Hawk-eye) in the first place. I still don't like it today. That hasn't changed,' he insisted

Federer has also called into question the wisdom of an experiment for next season to allow some smaller events to play in round-robin instead of traditional single-knockout format.

'It could kind of work,' he said by way of lukewarm endorsement. 'You get to see the best players maybe twice at least or three times.

'But then I think you lose the first round (or round robin), you want to stick around for maybe not even being able to qualify?

'It's kind of maybe a losing battle, I have some doubts - just keep the knockout system. That's what's so unique about tennis, one bad day, you're out.'

Nadal, at age 20, is keen to give the fans what they want. If that means round-robin, the so be it. 'People want to see Federer, or (Andy) Roddick, now perhaps me,' he said with some understatement. 'This way, they will get to see them twice instead of once.

'If the number 2 or the number 1 lose in the first round it is a catastrophe for the tournament.'

Nadal voiced complaints about the increased length of the French Open, which began on a Sunday instead of a Monday, making it 15 days of Grand Slam play.

'We started playing on Sunday and we earned almost nothing more, but the tournament benefits a lot from that.'