Thursday, April 07, 2011

2011 Clay season, same old shit with different dates

The clay season has started, well on the main ATP tour anyway. This could be one of the shorter previews that I will do and this is not a bad thing. In fact I could just end it with Rafael Nadal as long as he is semi fit and yes this means even at half capacity, he should win everything on clay as he usually does. Yes, it's boring and has been boring since 2005, but that's not his fault that his level of competition are incapable of presenting anything resembling token resistence. You know it's bad when his toughest Roland Garros win was against Mariano "I failed a drug test twice" Puerta in 2005.

Houston and Casachallenger are on this week. Already there have been some hilarious things happen, the worst of all was the Sweeting and Querrey match. Only bad thing was that I missed it and it sounded it was so bad, it was good. Mikey Russell lost to Andreev in straight sets, sure Andreev hasn't been at his best for a long time but a tough draw for Russell after all there were a lot of wood ducks in this draw and he got one of the better players. Charly Berlocq did the good Samiritan thing and let James "I'm went to Harvard, but play elementary tennis" Blake off the hook in their match, this result was popular among the locals. If he made main draw at Roland Garros, people will be praying to draw him.

Casachallenger hopefully there'll be a new title winner at this prestigious event. Pere Riba and Andujar are in the quarter finals playing each other, definitely not the most talented guys around but Andujar is alright by me. He hangs out with Gimeno-Traver and even plays doubles with him, so Daniel can get a winners purse this season, plus he took out the ballbashing buffoon Chardy which is never a bad thing. DGT needs to play Chardy, so he could get a win this season. He is getting closer at least he has taken sets in his last 2 losses but his break point conversion against Lurch Hanescu was awful.

Match of the day involves Fabio "I lack self confdence" Fognini against the feisty Slovenian Blaž Kavčič. The organisers have made an error putting this on a non-tv court. The gestures here could be quite funny with the Fog strutting around like he owns the tour and not giving a shit. Kavčič getting pissed off about something usually happens within the match. He has good chances today if he can play to his level, not making mistakes and providing his ankle is fine. The Fog can play but he is very moody even for a diva.

Not exactly inspiring, unless you are a Nadal fanboy or fangirl. Watching him beat up the opposition on clay, only difference is the dates of these executions. Greater interest in who will win the tournaments he isn't playing or who can make the latter stages of the events he is in.

6 comments:

Marc said...

Not exactly full of joy this entry. There is inevitability about the clay season lets hope there is some interest.

Rosie said...

Always entertaining, Nils! Good read! :))

Merton said...

I saw Luczak both against Grenelmayr and Volandri. At the beginning Dennis was red-hot, all the funky slices were on and the changes of pace timely. Grenelmayr went 5-2 up but then Peter improved his depth and Dennis totally lost it, complaining about the noise, the quality of the umpiring, the positions of the ball-kids and with himself. After that it was totally one way traffic, Peter just losing only one game until the end.

Too bad for Peter against Volandri, he never decided how to go after the mighty Volandri serve. The Volandri serve is certainly a piece of art, totally different watching it nearby compared to a live stream. His arm movement is too artificial and crooked, eventually cutting off his own pace. However, he generates lots of spin and has variety in placement. Overall a total piece of trash but one that cannot be dismissed lightly on clay. On three break points in the first set, Peter tried to turn around the wide serve on the ad side and strike a forehand return winner. He missed all three times. Add the fact that Volandri's backhand was on, and Peter lost.

fab said...

i hope there will be more entries during the clay season. don't let nadal spoil it, there are plenty of other tournaments around ;)

casablanca was actually pretty entertaining, although we all know this tournament is not ATP top class.

Msr Andujar said...

zzzzz

I could bet that you copied bunches from one of your previous entries, 2009, maybe? :ras:
You're dieing to post a "Djokovic save the clay season", don't you? :(

Sigurd Sigurdsson said...

Thanks for the report Merton and I'm going to do a Monte Carlo entry, though Andujar deserves his time in the sun.