In 2014, the Mexican Open (Also known as the Acapulco Open), changed the surface from clay to hard in a bid to attract more top players. In 2013, the draw had five top 30 players.

In 2017 the tournament had eleven top 30 players, including Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal.

Let’s clear some things before we dive into the topic at hand. The Latin/South American Clay Court swing consists of four tournaments for each week in February. It begins in Quito and then goes on to Buenos Aires, Rio and ends in Sau Paulo. Rio is the only ATP 500 tournament in South America. This swing is after the conclusion of the Australian Open and before the commencement of the Sunshine Double (Indian Wells + Miami).

Soon after the Latin swing ended in 2017, reports emerged that the ATP was conducting a review for the change of surface from clay to hard courts. This itself was after the tournament director for the Rio Open, Luis Carvalho, said that he wanted to change the venue of the tournament from the Jockey Club to the Olympic Tennis Center to attract more top players.

“We’ve been trying to do it for a while. We’re in the middle of nowhere (with regards to scheduling)”.

“ We tried (to get) Juan Martin Del Potro, but unfortunately he won’t come in 2018,’ added Carvalho. ‘He plays on hard (court) during that time of the year. If the surface changes, he said that he will play Rio Open”.

Argentina Open

Juan Martin isn’t the only player to feel the same way. When asked in a Q&A last year, Nick Kyrgios said the same thing:

Alexander Zverev echoed the same opinion, with only Nadal vocal in his support for the clay to remain, and Roger Federer, ever so saintly and diplomatic, summed it up by saying “Surface change is always tricky”.

This makes sense because most players want to prepare for the upcoming Masters tournaments in Indian Wells and Miami, contested on hard courts. Because of this, the only players who end up participating are clay specialists and a few big names (Nadal from 2013–16) who agree to come to the tournaments in return for good appearance fees.

This brings us to the topic: What exactly is the point of this mini-clay season? The South American Clay swing isn’t even exclusive: There are hard court tournaments running simultaneously. This week’s tournament in Buenos Aires is overshadowed by the ABN AMRO championships, an ATP 500 event. Next week’s Rio Open is the only tournament which is a 500 for the week. Sao Paulo is overshadowed by Dubai and Acapulco, both of which are 500 events and right before Indian Wells. Who’d want to go there?

It is understandable that the surface of choice in South America is clay, but when a tournament director and the ITF ask for a change, the ATP should do something. Right?

But what if the other tournament heads don’t want the change? What about the local players who thrive on clay? What about the tour’s devolution into a monotony of surface and speed? The grass season is barely a month long already. In a tour where there’s been a dwindling of dynamicity due to surface and speed, more hard court tournaments does not sound too good does it? What is the solution?

As Roger Federer said, surface change is always tricky.