Moving on to the next topic": Vallverdu's blunt take on Shanghai surface
In Shanghai, the radical surface change stunned players with an extremely low speed rating. Armed with data, Daniel Vallverdu calls it a "definite mistake" and reignites the heated debate about court standardization.
The slowness of the Shanghai surface surprised players this year. In a Masters 1000 tournament known for being fast, the humidity and surface change implemented by the organizers caused a significant drop in the speed rating.
This led to negative reactions from players and revived the debate about standardizing court surfaces.
Daniel Vallverdu, former coach of Grigor Dimitrov and Tomas Berdych among others, decided to share his opinion on X, backed by numbers:
"Updated speed rating for all hard court Masters 1000:
Indian Wells - 31.0
Miami - 39.9
Toronto - 44.7
Cincinnati - 43.7
Shanghai - 32.8 (compared to 42.4 in 2024). Definitely a mistake. I'm sure there will be an adjustment for next year.
Paris 2024 - 45.5
Over 50% of hard courts in Masters 1000 have medium to fast speed. These are facts. Moving on to the next topic.
Shanghai 
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