Brian Baker has had an amazing come back to tennis. Baker had six years off with injury, but now he is back and better than ever.
A few weeks ago Baker won a challenger event which won him a wildcard into French Open 2012 main draw. This week he has qualified for the ATP Tour event in Nice and has also won the first round main draw match!
Baker reached the Boys’ Singles final at Roland Garros – losing to former top 10 player Stanislas Wawrinka. Thus, if he can stay fit, he is going to be a top 20 player at the very least! Look out for Brian Baker in the French Open next week!
What is being humorously referred to as “smurf” clay is debuting at the Madrid Open this week amid a smattering of critiques from players. It will be the first time this tournament has featured the blue-colored clay instead of the more traditional red surface. While it has garnered moderate approval from
Roger Federer, Andy Murray, and Maria Sharapova, it has been criticized by world champion Raphael Nadal. Nadal, the 2005 Madrid Open winner and 10 time Grand Slam champion, will no longer be donning the knee brace he has worn since the latest flareup of his recurring tendinitis. He is the local favorite to win the tournament.
Nadal, who is considered by many to be the world’s best clay player, thinks that the sudden switch to blue clay could adversely affect his training for the French Open, as well as the rest of clay court season. He had surprisingly harsh words on the subject, saying that the only person who would benefit from it was the tournament owner, billionaire and former Romanian ATP player Ion Tiriac. Other criticism came from top-ranked Novak Djokovic, who says that the court alters a player’s perception of how the ball will bounce.
Interestingly, though the court material was produced in the exact same way as the red court, at least one player, 23rd ranked Canadian player Milos Raonic, has cited increased slickness and decreased bounce. If this is true, it will factor in to an already changed game pace, accelerated by the thin air of Madrid’s elevated altitude.
The Madrid Open is the only tournament in in Europe that features both men and women. It is played inside the Caja Magica, one of the more astonishing pieces of architecture in sports. The corresponding City of Tennis is Madrid features three indoor/outdoor courts that can seat 20,000 spectators. While no one is quite sure what exactly triggered the push for a clay color change by owner Tiriac, organizers say the new color will allow viewers to better follow the ball. It is certainly a noteworthy addition to the clay court season, though spectators may miss the now customary sight of Raphael Nadal staining his apparel with red clay streaks.
The Madrid Masters have apparently gone through some drastic changes, as the traditional color of clay will not be present at the ATP 1000 event. Instead, the color will be a somewhat new and different: blue. I am deeply interested at the sight of these courts, and some players have already spoken their thoughts about the change at the Mutua Madrilena Open:
Rafael Nadal: “The history of the clay court season was on red, it wasn’t on blue. . .”
Novak Djokovic: “Sometimes change is good. I like innovative and creative people. But, on the other hand, it’s going to be the only blue clay-court tournament in the world, first time ever in history. To be honest with you. . . I never played on blue clay. Rafa didn’t. Roger didn’t. We’re going on there and we’re going to play for the first time ever. We don’t even know if it’s a natural blue clay because natural clay is a red clay. I’m not really too happy about it.”
Andy Murray: “For the players, it would be better for it to be on the red clay. But at the same time, I’ve watched sometimes in Madrid. It’s very difficult to see the ball. I understand the reasons for doing it.”
We have yet to know what Roger Federer thinks about this change, and I wonder if his opinion will be positive or negative, and whether, based on all of these opinions from top players, the tournament will change back to red clay in a matter of years…
Novak Djokovic is just hanging in during his semifinal match currently underway at the Monte Carlo Country Club. Djokovic lost the first set 6-4 and is current 3-0 in the second set, even though Tomas Berdych has had break points in both of Djokovic’s service games.
It is very blustery conditions in Monte Carlo and the court surface has given the players a lot of trouble in this match and previously in the week.
Its going to be very interesting to see if Djokovic can come back.
This is what Roger Federer will be wearing at the Masters events in Rome and Madrid. These outfits are of course Nike and specifically Nike Smash Clay range.
Questions are being raised on whether Rafa will be fit for the clay season, his success in the clay court stint has earned him the nickname “King of Clay”.
When Rafael Nadal edged past Jo-Wilfried Tsonga to advance to the semi finals at the Sony Ericsson Open, he looked to have found form that would have beaten Roger Federer in the Desert at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden. The world number two cut out the forehand errors that were very common in his match against Federer, with Tsonga unable to answer the Spaniard’s exceptional speed and accuracy. Rumours started circulating, only hours after the match, that Rafa had suffered some kind of leg injury during the match. The following day, Nadal confirmed he had a left knee injury that needed a lot of treatment and rest.
While the World number 2 has stated he plans to be ready for his home masters tournament in Monte Carlo in two weeks, there are various officials casting doubt on whether he will be ready in time. The impact of his absence in Monte Carlo could have on his game is quite significant as it is the first masters of the year on clay and provides very good preparation for Roland Garros, which is only a month and a half away. Now while Rafa has plenty of time to recover before he begins his only Grand Slam defence, will he be playing his best tennis and able to not hold back on his left knee? We look back to January at this year’s Australian Open, Rafa stated he had to hold back on his stretching and putting weight on his leg, due to a crack before walking on court.
At the moment it’s all just speculation, we will have to wait and see what form the world number two has in a couple of weeks, but if he isn’t able to rely and put full strain on his left knee, I don’t see him defending his title in Monte Carlo or at the French Open.
The Clay Court season is coming around very quickly and it is going to be very interesting to see if Novak Djokovic can keep up his amazing form or whether Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Andy Murray or others will defeat him.
Who do you think will win out in this years Clay Court Season?
Roger Federer has already left the hard courts behind him and has started training on clay courts. Roger has an upcoming Davis Cup match against the United States this month in Fribourg.
30-year-old Federer is going to play Davis Cup this month at Fribourg, later he will travel to Netherland’s to take part in ABN AMRO World Tennis tournament, which kick off on 13th February.
Although nearly everyone would put their house on Nadal to win his 5th straight French Open title, Robin Soderling is one of the dark horses that he should be wary of.
Nadal beat him so convincingly a few weeks ago in Rome 6-1, 6-0 and is 3 and 0 in head to head results against Soderling but there has been some fierce rivalry between these two which started at this very tournament in the first round of 2006 in which Nadal clinically won in straight sets.
The tension between these two esculated at Wimbledon 2007 in a match that was played out over 3 days due to the weather. There was alot of niggling going on from Soderling in response to the time Nadal took between points and also some of his mannerisms. There was no love lost here between the two and Nadal went on to win 6-4 6-4 6-7(7) 4-6 7-5. This to me proved there was enough fire inside the belly of Soderling to take revenge and upset the world number one on what could be described as his very own court having never lost a match on it and over the course of the last four years only losing 7 sets from 31 matches.
The key to this victory could be put down to many things like Nadal not at his best or Nadal had peaked too soon this year winning so many titles already on the red surface, but the two things that really stood out for me in this match was (1) Soderling believed in himself and his game plan and (2) he went out there to make Nadal work and put him more on the defensive by hitting more to the strength of Nadal (forehand) and then exposing more of his weaker side in the backhand.
Roger Federer has stunned Rafael Nadal 6-4 6-4 to win the Madrid Masters event yesterday. Rogers win against Rafael ended a five match, 18 month lising stream against the Spaniard. That run included three Grand Slam titles and ended Nadal’s 33 match winning streak on clay, which streaches back over a year to the Rome second round in 2008.
Federer heads into the French Open in a week’s time with a huge confidence boost after finally defeating the man who stripped him of his Wimbledon title last summer.
Nadal, who had won clay-court titles in Monte Carlo, Barcelona and Rome this year, was visibly jaded from his semi-final the day before, when he needed over four hours to defeat Novak Djokovic. It was one match too many for the top seed, who was unable to squeeze motivation or power out of a weary body after complaining of problems with his knees in that marathon encounter.
“I think this (fast clay) favoured Roger,” said Nadal, who has won nine of 11 clay meetings against his rival.
“He deserved this victory more than I did. He played well. I wasn’t able to play aggressively enough.”
Nadal and Federer, who have contested the last three French Open finals, both head to Paris with the Spaniard hoping to regain his powers after playing and winning for three of the last four weeks on his favoured surface.
Federer won €585,000 ($1.05 million) and a car as he extracted some revenge in the pair’s first meeting since the Australian Open final five months ago which ended with him reduced to tears.
“I’m sorry to have beaten a Spaniard on your court, I’m sorry to spoil the party,” he told tournament director and former great Manolo Santana on the showcase court named in his honour.
The Spaniard’s defeat was only his fifth on clay over 155 matches dating back to 2005.
American tennis players have approached the clay court season with a lot of fear and U.S. Davis Cup captain Patrick McEnroe believes that the surface is the key to unearthing the next American champion.
“If you develop players more on clay … they will become better all-court players, even … better fast-court players,” McEnroe said during a conference call on Tuesday. “The way the game has changed with the technology, the rackets, the strings, the athleticism and the speed you have to learn how to build the point and play with spin, play with angle, take the ball early. You basically have to do it all.
“We’re not teaching our players to be clay-courters. We’re not going to change into a clay-court nation anytime soon. But we certainly feel it is a huge part of the developmental process for kids to become all-around players,” he said.
While McEnroe would like to see younger players embrace more of the clay-court game, he acknowledges it comes at the expense of the attacking, aggressive style favored by Americans on the lightning-quick hard courts.
“Most of our great American players are attacking players; we don’t want to take that away as our mentality,” said McEnroe. “We want to keep that. But at the same time we want our kids to know how to build points better, use all the court better and how to be fitter.
“If you play on clay you will automatically get fitter because you play more balls and you have to create more shots rather than going for broke all the time,” he said.
The USTA has invested close to $15 million a year in regional training centers and coaching initiatives to help find and develop players to arrest that slide.
“The rest of world has caught up,” said McEnroe. “We believe we’ve been lacking in having a systematic approach to how we teach our kids overall, a coaching philosophy. We’re reaching out to as many coaches with the philosophy we have when it comes to understand how to play tennis as opposed to how to hit the ball.
“I don’t believe that you can necessarily create a champion but you can create an environment where you’re setting yourself up to find champions easier,” he said. “We’re trying to find players we think can become legitimate professionals and we believe that in the long run the more players you have there the better chance you are going to have finding the next Pete Sampras.”
Name: Raphael Nadal Country: Spain Birthplace: Manacor, Mallorca Residence: Manacor, Mallorca Plays: Left Handed (Double Handed Backhand) Highest Singles Ranking: 2 (25-Jul-05) Highest Doubles Ranking: 26 (8-Aug-05) Scouting: Everyone knows who Raphael Nadal is. He is the current 4 times champion of the French Open, but not only is he dominant on his favourite surface clay, but his game is improving every year on all of the other surfaces. This is currently being shown when he has already reached the Wimbledon final twice.
What most people dont know is that Rafa used to play double handed on both sides so normally most players try to attack his backhand, but this is a lot more consistent that his forehand. Rafa likes to play at a consistent depth on the baseline so movement within your ground shots is vital. Plus you would really need to serve well because his return of serve is so important to his game. When playing Nadal the only chance you have is to keep points very short, try to hit one big shot in each rally and of course you must capitalise on it. Mixing up length of shots is important and also trying to bring him to net whenever possible. Rafa is one of the greatest clay court players I have seen in a long time, but his game on other surfaces can break be broken down, but definitely not easily.
Roger Federer has stunned Rafael Nadal 6-4 6-4 to win the Madrid Masters event yesterday. Rogers win against Rafael ended a five match, 18 month lising stream against the Spaniard. That run included three Grand Slam titles and ended Nadal’s 33 match winning streak on clay, which streaches back over a year to the Rome second round in 2008.
American tennis players have approached the clay court season with a lot of fear and U.S. Davis Cup captain Patrick McEnroe believes that the surface is the key to unearthing the next American champion.
Name: Raphael Nadal
