Camp Nou, Gaudi, La Rambla, the home of Catalan Culture

This has traditionially been one of the best clay events on the calendar and nearly anyone who is anybody in respect to claycourt pedigree has won here for example Borg, Wilander, Lendl, Muster, Nadal, then there have been the surprise winners like Todd Martin and Richard Krajicek.

Some would say that it's a waste of time to do a review of a clay event that Nadal is playing in, and there is probably some merit in ths, but one can hope that there are possibilities of him being knocked off the perch this week. If not, which is likely, then it can give a chance to gauge the form of some of the other contenders.

The Americans decided to show up here with James Blake and Gineprick, it was meant to be three, but the best of the lot Vinny "Ice" Spadea withdrew for some reason, which is disappointing, because the rap gimmick and his sense of style and flair would have gone down well there. Ginepri is going there as a tourist and also he can work again with Jose Higueras who is going back to his homeland.

Kevin Anderson and Dmitry Tursunov has all the hallmarks of a claycourt clown classic, though this one will pale into insignifance compared to the classic between Kenneth Carlsen and Paradorn Srichaphan that was played in front of the Catalans. This is a city that has seen some of the most breathtaking football and claycourt tennis artistry, but nothing will top that much for all round buffoonery and tennis was the only winner.

The event is still played at a club and not some purpose built arena, which gives it something of a special atmosphere for all the Spanish players, many of them Catalan speakers as well. This is as close to a local event for Rafael Nadal since Mallorca moved to Valencia, since his first language Mallorcan is close to Catalan. He has been good enough to be able to win this event, this is something the genial and likable Alex Corretja was never able to do for some reason, plus this was where Felix Mantilla (a profile will be on him this week) made his comeback from skin cancer and got a great reception and pushed Moya to the brink last year.

Onto the matches there are some very good 1st rounders and tough sections, and usual a section that has some clay clowns, but that is bound to happen. The good natured Aussie Peter Luczak didn't get the best of draws, especially as he flew from Bermuda and will face the Potato Starchy (Starace). Starace hasn't been in as good form as last year since coming back from the betting ban, which was just gelato money. They have played once this year and Starace won in straight sets, and would be strongly favoured here. It will be interesting to see how he does against Nadal. Also in this section is Chucho Acasuso who is playing LaLo, who haven't played for almost 5 years and Chucho needs to get his season back on track after the Davis Cup failure.

The Blake section of the draw is very weak and whoever gets through there, it will be like a Bye for the semi finals. Blake, who has never real done the business on clay in Europe. Tursunov and Anderson are clay clowns. Navarro has some good possibilities, as his serve and volley game can be effective, the clay gives him more time to make the returns. Marcos Daniel is a challenger player who fights hard and has no forehand. The interesting part is Gremelmayr and Ramirez-Hidalgo, both of whom ran Federer quite close on the clay in Estoril and Monte Carlo respectively but lacked the necessary Wilanders (balls) to believe they could win this match.

Unlike the Blake section, the potential quarter finalist from this section could either be Mucho Almagro who plays well at home and in the lower level ATP events. Volandri who has to max out his points for the year, he plays the talented, but tactically inept Jürgen Melzer. Melzer beat him on clay to win his only title, yet he lost a set 6-0 to Volandri on indoor hard in Bercy, in which he was considered a bit of a joke for getting a bagel from Volandri on a non-clay surface. Ancic is continuing on his comeback and with Fidde Rosengren taking plenty of notes, anyone who knows anything about Fidde is that he works his players hard and wants them do well on the clay to help them on other surfaces. If he beats Zverev, then he will play Andy Murray who is still an unknown quantity on the clay, at least he has enlisted Alex Corretja one of the best tacticians of the game to help deal with the red stuff.

Marcel Granollers returns home after a great trip to North America where he got his first title, playing another local lad in Fat Albert Montañes. This will be Espanyol vs. FC Barcelona in this one. Polaco Brzezicki and Cuevas, this one could go either way, maybe Cuevas can get some inspiration from Marcel's win in Houston, though losing to a 15yr old is going to do much for his ego. The seeds in this section are big Ivo Karlovic and the Finn Jarrko Nieminen, who was finally able to end the run of poor defeats and is now going to work with Joakim Nyström for the clay season.

Stani Wawrinka and Nalbandian are paired in the same section of a draw once again, this does not mean that they will necessarily will meet in the 3rd round, as long as Stani gets through his qualifier, he won't have problems with Ginepri or Schukin unless he has a very bad paella. Calleri who played 2 very poor matches lately has a chance to get a win against ToJo Johansson and if that's the case, then there will be the Cordoba derby between he and Nalbandian. Boca vs. River Plate, Calleri won the last time they played, the thing with el Gordo is that it's very hard to pick when he is going to play well, because of the fluctuations of his game.

As this preview is almost like an essay time to finish it up. It's good to see that Cañas is back, the only problem is that he is facing King Oscar is in his backyard, at least tennis will win here. Coria back on the ATP level, so the Weasel playing the tsunami Gabashvili, there definitely could be some funny antics in that one and maybe a bit of chat as Gabashvili speaks Spanish, it will depend on how Coria serves. Ferrer is there lurking in the shadows, he seems to have lifted his game and this is good.

Nadal, well it would be great if he could stopped this week, then again it would be great if I had 6 to 10 hot women on call all the time, just like Nadal losing this week, it's not going to happen.