Ferrer show in Valencia, Federer wins a Challenger and Marcel Granollers shows Blake how to win on clay

The clay season has finally kicked off and it was an interesting week for a variety of reasons in the respective events Valencia, Estoril and Houston. A mixture of the expected and unexpected happened, which is typical for the week after Davis Cup and also for early in the clay season for many players. I will do the summary in 3 different parts for the respective events.

Valencia

This is meant to be last edition of the Valencia clay event, before it becomes one of these 100 000000 point ATP events that Mr. Disney wants to rename for the purpose of making it look like he is doing something for the game, the surface will be changing to indoor hard, if all the 2009 calendar thing goes through.

It was clearly the strongest event of the week, this was due to the calendar being fucked up for the year. Before we get through to the good stuff, well that depends on the definition of good. Lucho Horna continued his poor streak of form by losing 1st round to Zverev, who is not a claycourter, but has a good serve and is tricky, plus Lucho isn't known for the quality of his return game. Disappointing that he pulled out of the Bermuda Chllenger, he is too good to be where he is ranked at the moment, but fitness issues can do this.

Igor Andreev lost another 3rd set tiebreaker to countryman Evgeny Korolev, seems the only man he can beat in them is Albert Montañes, his 2007 losing streak in final set tiebreakers includes Nadal, Djokovic, Seppi, Mahut and LaLo (5th set TB) this is not the one trend that a player wants to repeat. After the big comeback year of 2007, it's no surprise that Andreev has struggled a bit in 2008, taking all that effort to come back, rebuild the ranking, that he is mentally a bit down at the moment. Though he does have a very attractive girlfriend, which can be a good or a bad thing. He is still a dangerous opponent, though a danger to himself he can be as well, with those bricklayer hands at the net. It was a great week for Korolev who has gone into the background recently and this can be a good thing for his development, that the other youngsters have had more headlines. He fought very hard and went one better with the semi final before losing to Nico "Mr. Valencia" Almagro, who had the been the best player all week.

Marat Safin defeating Ferrero, two former number ones playing in a 1st round of an IS event, well time and the game don't stand still for anybody. Best thing for Marat is that he is working with Geneva's finest Marc Rosset for the clay season. With this win and also his Davis Cup 5 set win over Berdych, of course there were plenty of fools who believed that he was back. It will take some consistent wins and not consistent 1st round losses before Safin is back to a decent level, if he can play one of the big guys early in the upcoming TMS events, he usually plays well, but he has more problems with the lower ranked ones these days.

Onto the winner of the event the local lad David Ferrer. What a courageous fighter he is, the biggest fighter on tour now Felix Mantilla has retired. He is definitely not the most spectacular player, but even when not playing at his best, he will always fight hard and has won matches from seemingly impossible positions, this tournament was a perfect example of this. In the quarter final he was outplayed for the most part by Fernando Verdasco who has done well against Ferrer in their recent matches, but Verdasco had match point and served for the match. He showed once again he has the million dollar game and body, but the tennis brain and the on court mentality of a 1 cent piece and this goes onto the numerous list of matches, that somehow Verdasco has managed to blow from winning positions. The semi final was more of the same against Boredo, who was up a set and dominating the match, but Ferrer just hung around, cut down on his mistakes, ran everything down, got a bit more aggressive and was able to turn the tide.

The final against Almagro. El cabezon Almagro has won this event twice and had 17 consecutive wins at the venue and unlike Ferrer, he was hardly challenged this week in his wins. He made Juan Monaco and Korolev look ordinary and started off in the same way in the final against a nervy Ferrer. Almagro was serving well, using the angles and the spin to set up the points, then hit a quicker one to change it up. He was 0-3 in matches against Ferrer, while he has the weapons to beat Ferrer, he doesn't always have the mental aptitude on court. He took the 1st set easily, but Ferrer was able to start returning better in the 2nd set and el cabezon was missing his big groundies, even then as Ferrer won the 2nd set, it seemed Almagro was in control. The 3rd set began like the 1st and Almagro was having his way with Ferrer, up a double break at 5-2, it looked like he was going to win three times in a row. Ferrer kept hanging on and Mucho got tight, Ferrer sensed this and took the initiative and was able to level at 5-5. Once he got in the tiebreaker, Ferrer was just too solid, not making errors and riding on the back of the crowd support, whereas Mucho was bemused at what was going on out there.

Ferrer was a deserved winner, mainly because he did not give up, played the big points well and showed how much he has developed over the years, finding a way to win when not playing near your best and this event illustrated that perfectly. Almagro, well he now needs to perform at the bigger clay events at a consistent level to justify the hype around him, the ability isn't what he lacks.

Estoril Challenger

This event used to open the clay season and had quality events, but this year suffered due to the shift in dates. Apart from Roger Federer and Davydenko this was just a challenger field in reality. Yes, both of these guys made the final, though there were a few hurdles. Davydenko was playing poorly and trying to lose, so he could go to Monte Carlo, but if he loses early in these IS events, then there is the spectre of an investigation of him not putting in his best effort. Federer managed to lose a set to Gremelmayr who somehow made the semi finals. Fed also hit some backhands into Spain or the Azores depending on wind conditions. So we had a final with a guy who tried to tank, but the players he played weren't good enough to take advantage of it and the world number 1 who isn't exactly in prime form. Federer won, but the fact that Davydenko retired in the 2nd set with a break, is just ironic. Some of the more paranoid will think it was a fix, though not sure winning the Estoril Challenger is worth as much as doing well in Monte Carlo. It's definitely not the way Federer would like to win a title, but it's apt for how his season has played out so far.

Houston

Congratulations to Marcel Granollers-Pujol on winning his ATP title. It was a surprising win, though at the same time it was a very open field, with North American Mickey Mouse title specialists James Blake and Tommy Haas in the field. Marcel took out Gulbis, Luczak, Daniel, Odesnik saving 2 match points in the process and then taking out Blake 7-5 in the 3rd after being down 0-3 in the 3rd set and serving for the match at 5-4. Marcel just had too much claycourt acumen for Blake, who was frustrated with the heavy conditions and not being able to hit through his opponent, who defended well, when he needed to and changed it up with some excellent dropshots.

Other notes on this event. The venue is a plush country club, but I think it suits the event perfectly. The court is slow in general, but unlike in Europe, they use the Wilson ball which is a lot lighter than the one used in Europe and South America. Well somehow Fish wins clay matches in Houston, but can't do it anywhere else. Fish's loss to King Oscar was great and funny as well. Fish complaining about the hamburger smell nearby, but the King didn't mind and got hungry from it.

This event cause of the open nature was a series of lost opportunities. Sergio "Escopeta" Roitman who has won big events in Challengers, but seems to have problems progressing past the quarter finals of ATP events. He had the perfect opportunity to do this against Wayne Odesnik, a courageous leftie from South Africa but lives in the US now. Roitman won the 1st set easily, then served for the match twice in the 2nd set and had a match point in the process. He has a history of some classic chokes and failing to close out matches, this is one match he will be kicking himself badly that he lost.

King Oscar made his first semi final after 0-7 in QF appearances on tour, while this is a good result making the semis. There were chances for him to make the final, initially Oscar was a bit nervous which makes sense considering it was his first semi and lost the 1st set. The 2nd set at 3-1 up and 30-0, this was where he needed to establish himself on the match to able to take it to the 3rd set, as he has the game on clay to frustrate Blake. The weather worked in Blake's favour as it was warmer and that made the court quicker and helped impose his game. Not sure if the King will get another chance to make a tour final, but it does not matter he will always be King Oscar.