CLAY COURT SEASON gets underway

General / Editor / 27 March 2007 / Leave a Comment

Betfair tennis: Love it or hate it, it's clay time

JUST OVER a week to go before the part of the season the Spanish and South Americans love and almost everyone else on the tennis circuit loves to hate...just the climax of the Miami Masters then a week of Davis Cup focus remains before the CLAY COURT SEASON gets underway.

From April 9 in Houston or Valencia until June 10 at Roland Garros, it's time to go slipping and sliding.

The serve and volleyers hate it. The slow courts reduce their dominance. For counter-punchers like Raphael Nadal, Tommy Robredo and David Nalbandian it's show time.

Until Nadal's victory in Indian Wells earlier this month he hadn't won a title since last year's French Open. He will go into this year's Paris showpiece - the climax of the clay court season - bidding for a hat-trick of triumphs...the perfect way to celebrate his 21st birthday, which will fall on the middle Sunday of Roland Garros.

Of course, world number one Roger Federer will be out to stop him. He came close last year in his first French Open final, taking the first set emphatically before dropping the next three.

Over the coming weeks, he could choose to sharpen his game around the courts of Europe. He can start in Houston or Valencia on April 9. Then there's the third Masters event in Monte Carlo.

After that it is Barcelona or Casablanca, followed by Munich or Portugal then the Masters event in Rome quickly followed by the Hamburg Masters. The final warm-up before Paris is either the Poertschach event in Austria or the World Team Championships in Dusseldorf.

Last year Federer played just the two Masters' before Paris - and only Nadal got the better of him.

In Monte Carlo he lost in four sets, two of them tie-breaks.

In Rome he only lost to the 'King of Spain' on a fifth-set tie-break (three of the sets went to tie-breaks).

It will be interesting to see if Federer limits himself to the Masters events as his preparation for Paris this season or whether he will play any of the other nine events on offer.

And don't be fooled: he has done it on clay. He won the Hamburg Masters event in 2002 (beat Marat Safin in the final), 2004 (beat Guillermo Coria) and 2005 (beat Richard Gasquet).

There is no doubting, though, that he wants to succeed where other greats have failed. On clay. Pete Sampras, for instance, played the French Open 13 times but only once reached the semi-finals, losing to eventual winner Yevgeny Kafelnikov in 1996.

Fellow American Andy Roddick has played Paris six times and only gone beyond the second round once, on his first visit in 2001 when he was forced to retire against Lleyton Hewitt in their third-round clash.

Andre Agassi was the last man to produce a complete set of Grand Slam titles, his 1999 victory giving him all four majors - but not in the same year.

Bjorn Borg was the last player able to dominate on both clay and grass but the Australian and US Open titles always eluded him. Fellow Swede Mats Wilander was just as good in Paris, but also in Melbourne and New York - although he couldn't succeed at Wimbledon.

And great names like John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors couldn't get to grips with Roland Garros.

In fact, you have to go back to 1969 and Australian Rod Laver for the last man to achieve the Grand Slam of all four majors in the same year. Unless Federer can eventually overcome Nadal, you have to wonder if anyone will ever achieve it again.

And even if Nadal should stumble during this clay-court season, there are others waiting to cash in.

Juan Carlos Ferrero was 2002 runner-up and 2003 winner in Paris, Brazilian comeback star Gustavo Kuerten is a three-time winner in Paris.

And on top of that there are some clear outsiders who have come through to reach the French final. Argentina's Mariana Puerta, a player who has lost almost as many matches as he won (128-118), came through unseeded to reach the 2005 final, as did Dutchman Martin Verkerk in 2003 before losing to Ferrero. And in 2004, Guillermo Coria got to the final before losing to fellow Argentine Gaston Gaudio.

The French Open will throw up some great long shots for Betfair punters as the unexpected can - and often does - happen.

With the exception of Nadal, the masters of the red stuff will not be making an impact a few weeks later on the green, green grass of Wimbledon. Only Nalbandian in 2002 proved an exception when, as 28th seed, he reached the final before losing in three sets to top seed Hewitt.

Nadal, Nalbandian, Robredo and Fernando Gonzalez will be ones to watch over the next 12 weeks or so. And possibly Guillermo Canas, who will relish the chance to climb back up the rankings towards his previous best world number eight following his 15-month doping ban.