There is a mystifying charm to clay-court matches in tennis. It is delightful to watch a baseline battle where players test each other with slices, drop shots and glorious passes, never running out of steam. The fight to win is more often than not, as complicated as a game of chess, one where you never know who will emerge victorious till the very end. If two players from France, Spain, Italy or the South American countries are on court, the intense battle is usually one to relish for a long time. On a closer look, several reasons are responsible for the slowness of clay courts. Because they are made up of a crushed-brick mixture, the bounce on these surfaces is the highest out of the three (grass and hard-court being the others). A lot of players can find it hard to adjust to this variable bounce and slow speed. Typically, Spanish, French, Italian and South American players are good at using the slow speed to their advantage because most of the tennis played in these countries, is on clay-courts. Players ranked inside the top-20 can be considered underdogs against a player outside the top-50 ahead of a clay-court match. This is because some players are suited for the surface and their range and simplicity of shots is enough to frustrate even the top guns. The official clay-court Grand Slam on the tennis tour, French Open, has probably had more upsets throughout its history than any other major tournament. It is hard to decide who is favourite to win, especially when clay-court specialists are around. Things are different if Rafael Nadal is playing on this surface though. Although he lost to countryman David Ferrer in the Monte Carlo quarterfinals recently, nothing else can explain his 43 wins in 49 clay court tournament finals than sheer dominance and control of the red clay settings. After becoming the only player to win eight titles at a Grand Slam, the French Open, he is hungry to add more Roland Garros silverware to his cabinet. Despite questions on whether he would return to play on clay after a wrist injury, the man who comes closest to challenging Nadal for the French Open crown this time is Novak Djokovic. Before Djokovic beat the Spaniard in Madrid and Rome Masters in 2011, Nadal was unstoppable on clay. Not even did his compatriot Ferrer come close to overcoming his never-say-die attitude on court and most matches between Nadal and anyone else on clay, were one-sided. There is another person that comes to mind as we approach the French Open, the second Grand Slam of the year, scheduled to start from May 25. It is someone who has never won at Roland Garros and yet is one of the most talked about players in Paris, because he has 17 other Grand Slam titles. The Swiss maestro Roger Federer may not compete at the 2014 event due to the impending birth of his child but if he does, everyone will be eager to see him being finally able to complete his Grand Slam trophy cabinet. However, the only way Federer can break the shackles and win is if Nadal gets knocked out early in the tournament and the Swiss gets to face either Djokovic or someone else in the final. In fact, Federer just beat Djokovic convincingly in straight sets in the Monte Carlo Masters semi-finals before going out in the final against fellow Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka, another man who can come into the reckoning at the French Open. With Federer in his prime form at the recently concluded Monte Carlo Masters, Nadal in a bit of a bother after a heartbreaking loss to Wawrinka in the Australian Open final. And new players like Ferrer and Wawrinka challenging the top-four constantly, it all makes up for an exciting French Open this time. The red-hot season of clay is here!
Posted on: Mon, 21 Apr 2014 17:36:41 +0000
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