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2008-04-23 10:23:00
My favorite part of the tennis year is definitely the European clay court season. As I flew in over France last week, I felt like a child waiting for his Christmas gifts, despite this being my tenth consecutive year in Monte Carlo. I have many great memories from this tournament. I watched my first ever Masters Series final here back in 1999. Gustavo Kuerten, who was outside the top 10, took on the ninth ranked Marcelo Rios. There are few players I have enjoyed watching as much as Rios. The Chilean was an exceptionally talented player with a touch which even made John McEnroe look on in awe. The mental aspect of his game was obviously not as strong, and there were many times when it was apparent that he would much rather be somewhere else than on that boring tennis court.
As I entered the gates to Monte Carlo Country Club just a few days less than nine years ago, I was sure that I would witness a great tennis match. Rios had not had an easy way to the championship match but had won several tough encounters and proved that he was in a fighting mood. Kuerten was playing with a lot of confidence at what would be the start of an almost three-year long run in the top world’s top 5.
After the huge surprise at Roland Garros two years earlier, a lot of people had questioned if “Guga” was another one-slam wonder. As it was to turn out, the final in Monte Carlo 1999 would be the turning-point seeing Kuerten go on to dominate on the red clay in 99, 00 and 01 winning the French Open back-to-back. The first major final that I got to witness did however end up as a big disappointment. After just 53 minutes, Rios had to retire with a thigh injury. There are many subsequent stories about how he went on to spend his prize money in the casino the same night…
Yesterday, Kuerten was back on the same court and I had the painful experience of watching his struggles against Ivan Ljubicic. Kuerten should have retired back in 2005, and as much as we all love him, there is no pleasure in seeing him go out and get hammered by today’s top players. The beautiful memories of his amazing movement and the highly effective backhand have now been blurred with visions of a former great who lacks mobility and can’t keep up with the power of today’s tennis.
As usual by now, most of the Americans have decided to skip the first Masters Series event on clay. Sam Querrey must feel slightly lost here without any In-N-Out burger joint and no shoulders to lean on. However, the lanky Californian opened up with a highly impressive three set win against Carlos Moya. His compatriots Andy Roddick, James Blake and Mardy Fish have more important things to take care of. They are in Las Vegas for Mardy’s Bachelors Party. Planning it for the clay court season must have been a very strategic decision. That’s even better than during the off-season, as that will be the time when they are busy with lucrative exhibition events in ten different states.
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Did you know that... James Blake appeared in People magazine's "Sexiest Man Alive" issue in 2006.
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good point on the last paragraph.why did andy not even bother to participate in this tournament? as a world no.6 player,does he have such a luxury? i mean,i can understand blake,he was in houston last week and it's hard to overcome the jetlag and play in a Masters-Series tournament but andy was off last week.he could at least try to play some matches on clay.he's not understandable.
sisterofnight12 , 4/23/08 1:20 PM