Nicolas Almagro: Sometimes talent isn't enough

It has been some time since I have wrote one of these types of articles, but that is not something that has meant to be happen. Deivid thanks a lot in advance for helping me with this piece.

Now the subject of this post is the Spaniard Nicolas Almagro. He is known as Mucho more commonly, but I like to refer to him as "el cabezon", which is a reference to size of his cranium to the rest of his body and not to his ego, which is definitely quite healthy as it normally is for a professional sportsman. At a time he was "the Superstar", because of the antics, but didn't have the results to back up the swagger, this has been partially rectified, though there are still question marks which will be addressed later.

Almagro turned pro in 2003 and won several Futures titles and he beat some names that have made it to the main tour Igor Andreev, Stani Wawrinka, Juan Monaco, Garcia-Lopez among the list. Then as a qualifer in Palermo, he came through and took finalist Mathieu to 3 sets, who made the final and had a huge choke against Massu.

"El cabezon", while he was known to Spanish tennis audiences, came known to international audiences when in a short space of a few weeks, he qualified for 2004 Hamburg and pushed Guillermo Coria to the brink losing 7-5 in the 3rd and this was the Coria who was on quite a long clay winning streak, who ended up losing to Federer in the final. Then he qualified for Roland Garros played Guga Kuerten lost the first two sets, came back won the next 2 and lost the last one 7-5. Though he lost those matches he made an impact with shotmaking, exuberance and the lack of fear when against two of the best claycourt players one in their prime and the other slightly faded.

After that, he lost his way in 2005 and didn't realise that he had to work hard to improve, within 2 seasons he was just outside the top 100. He pumped Safin in Rome in striaght sets, but did little else after that in the season. He won his first Valencia title as a qualifier in 2006, that then that lead him on a rich vein of form, losing to Nadal in Barcelona, then qualified for Rome and made the semi finals pushing Federer to the brink.

This is when the press and fans start getting on the Almagro bandwagon, that he is going to do some damage at Roland Garros, he is a dark horse and all the usual hype that happens after one or two good results. The hype ended up crashing pretty quickly when he lost to James Blake and this match highlighted many of 'el cabezon's" weaknesses. Blake plays the same style of game irrespective of surface, he belts the shit out of the ball, when not going well, he tries to hit it harder. Mucho wins the 1st set in a TB, then Blake's shots starts going in, but instead of Almagro using his greater experience and nous on clay, by stretching Blake wide or hitting some heavy topspin balls down the middle. He wants to be mucho macho and try and match Blake in the ballbashing stakes, as if to prove "I am the bigger man and I can hit harder than you", it's not rocket science, you don't try and play the game that your opponent loves, unless you are Federer at his best or Borg on clay.

Almagro has an outstanding single hand backhand down the line especially and can get very good angles on it and when in full flight it's a wonderful shot. His forehand while it's his weaker side, it's a very heavy shot and hard to attack, unless you get him moving. His serve is excellent, very hard to read with a quick and low ball toss and even with that low ball toss, he gets a lot of kick of the court, which opens the court up and then he can dominate from there.

El cabezon has an attitude problem as well.Yes, he has had some on court problems with his antics, well when he won Valencia in 2006. Marat Safin refused the handshake, then the famous incident with Daniel Koellerer in the Acapulco qualies, where they were giving each other shit and then Koellerer calls him "hijo de puta}, well he probably should have said it in German. In a way it's good that he is a bit controversial and shows what he feels on court.

More importantly, he has lazy footwork, not that he is slow per se, he just doesn't move that well, and that impacts on his defensive skills. "El cabezon" is the type that enjoys dictating the play, and can hit the big shots when he is set, but he finds it hard to defend very well, when stretched because of his average movement. This leads into some questionable shot selection, doesn't always know when to pull the trigger to unleash the powerful shots, could give the ball a bit more and use the advantage that he has heavy shots to get more short balls, that he can punish with his outstanding groundstrokes from either side.

He has now seemed to have found some consistency at the IS level and he played an excellent match in Acapulco against Nalbandian to win the title there. Almagro is due for some consistent performances in the major clay events, the main doubts are whether he has the will or the aptitude to work on the weaknesses like the movement, shot selection and defensive skills which will help him do better on the clay, as well as the hardcourts. Then again he might be content with just existing on his talents and existing between 20-50, with the occasional good performance.

As for the big breakthrough, well he is definitely good enough to win one of the big 4 clay events, but these aren't won, just by having great groundstrokes and looking good on court. He could do with a change of coach, to take him to the next level, as the saying goes you can lead the burro to the water, but you can't make him drink.

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.

Drinking beer, eating weisswurst, BMWs and there is some tennis this week in Münich

Germany, which was once the powerhouse of tennis, especially in the 90s, now it's relegated to only having a few small IS events. At the same time there is the Hamburg suing the ATP and Stuttgart almost a Mickey Mouse event.

Unlike Barcelona, this event is quite open, but this is to be expected when Nadal is not playing in a clay event. This tournament has the defending champion and Bavarian Philipp Kohlschreiber who also won the doubles as well, he has a fairly good draw, it wouldn't surprise if he defended the crown.

Mathieu and the Chilean Gonzalez are the top 2 seeds here, seems a bit strange that Gonzo would pull out of Monte Carlo to play there, then again small event and bigger appearance fee would help this and also he can use this to prepare for Rome, Hamburg and maybe Dusseldorf. He plays Sela who took him out in the Davis Cup playoffs last year, on this surface it should be a comfortable win for the Chilean.

Korolev and Cilic, could be potentially an interesting match between 2 youngsters, who go about the game very differently. Korolev with his power and not always the best shot selection and Cilic who works very hard and is quite steady.

Andy Seppi likes playing in German-speaking environments and will be looking to erase that poor performance against Querrey, where everything was just not working very well, he has quite a good section of the draw, got to take advantage of it.

Best match of this round is Monfils and Andreev who had quite good weeks in Monte Carlo last week, but anything could happen in this match. Andreev has been a bit inconsistent this season and Altur isn't with him as he has been over the last years and Thierry Champion is back with Monfils, though he will still play in Austria when standing to return serve. It's a hard match to gauge, but either player is good enough to take the title.

Del Potro has to get his season in order after some back problems, this is a good as place as any, to start building his ranking back up and now he has Franco Davin as his trainer, the ex-Gaudio coach, so he is used to some difficult characters.

Marat Safin is there probably looking to get a new BMW on a discount, he plays Charly Berlocq aka the panther, for his speed across the court. Berlocq flew in from Bermuda not long ago, so Marat could take advantage. At the moment it seems he can't string anything consistent, one day plays well, the next day awful. He has lost that bit of speed, which will make it harder for him.

Auf gehts Seppi, take your first title here, but like I said at the start, at least this event is open and that is something that has been lacking over the recent clay season.

The Millionares' Playground, Jimmy's Bar, Fifis, Casinos Beautiful people, well not beautiful, but rich people in Rainierstan aka Monte Carlo Preivew

Monte Carlo

We have now arrived to the first clay TMS of the season, which is one of the most prestigious, even though that clown Mr. Disney was trying to degrade its status, but the groundswell of support shows that there is still a lot of love there. This event has traditionally been the best indicator of Roland Garros success. Well here comes the problem will we see Rafael Nadal sleepwalk, while playing at 30% capacity and still winning the event easily. Or the unlikely scenario is that he might be challenged or pushed, let alone beaten. This season has been different to say the least, but Nadal losing on clay would liven it up for sure.

Federer after winning his 1st challenger title in years, well not really sure what level of form he is at. He has a kind draw until the QFs. The next section is of interest Boredo made the semis last week, but he still isn't in the form he was over the last 2 seasons. The possibility of too much tennis over the last 2 years has taken the edge off, he has a difficult 1st round with Stani Wawrinka. He leads 3-1, but Stani won the last one easily, this is the best surface for both of them. I think Stani will get the job done this time around, he has to be careful of making basic errors as Robredo will just get the ball back. Thunder Lips and Toad will be agood clash of styles, too bad they decided to put the match in Italy. Nalbandian is in this quarter, not sure how we will play. Personally I don't expect too much from him in this event, he had some muscle soreness in Davis Cup and he will be playing better in Barcelona and Rome, it would be good to be proven otherwise.

Guga is playing for the last time in Monte Carlo an event which he has won, just hope he can perform as well as he can, though I don't see him beating Ljubicic. This section has a potential Djokovic and Murray match in the 3rd round, it would be a surprise not to see Djokovic there, but Murray is still unknown on the clay. Take a bow Sam Querrey the only American player with the balls to come over and play with the big boys in Monte Carlo. It won't be easy for him as he plays the 10th seed Moya, he needs to serve big and hit some big forehands, then he might have a show. The Calleri and Seppi match is a difficult one as they are both favourites, their form has been up and down and it will be difficult to call the winner on this, though both of them do have a chance against Moya in the 2nd round. Rounding this section off will be Vliegen and Gasquet, the young Frenchie definitely has a lot to prove after the fiasco with Davis Cup. Allegedly he had blisters, a knee injury, dandruff. whatever the ailment, he has something to prove.

Andreev has the chance to take on Youzhny in the 2nd round, because he really shouldn't lose to Tursunov on clay, at the time I said that about Berdych losing to Roddick on clay. Possible 2nd round rematch from Valencia with Mucho Almagro and Juan Monaco, this will be a lot closer than the last one, conditions will be different, the court is faster in Monte Carlo and Monaco has got the jet lag out of the system, it wouldn't surprise if either Monaco or Almagro is the quarter finalist in this section. Chucho Acasuso plays Kohlschreiber, both of them had poor matches last time out in Davis Cup, especially Chucho getting thrashed by Soderling at home, but this is a good time to bounce back. Chucho's heavy game should be too strong for Kohli, then he'd take on Kiefer. Chela who is sucking at the moment needs to beat Bolelli and he would play Davydenko, who he enjoys a good record against.

Safin and Malisse, two headcases, should be the odd broken racquet and swear word in this match, if they are both switched on, then there is a chance to see some good tennis. Solid Starace will get a lot of Italian support, he'd fancy his chances of a 3rd round appearance. Ferrer is the man in their section, his level was not great at Valencia, but he got through that bad patch, not sure which Ferrer will show up this week.

As for the bottom part. Nadal is there and the all rest are just props, though I'd love Nieminen or Ancic to give the vamos, arse picking Mallorquin a challenge.

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.