Ricky Dimon

• French Open Preview: Top 25 Contenders (Part 7)

  2008-05-21 07:48:00
  

  In the 25 days leading up to the 2008 French Open, Ricky is counting down the Top 25 contenders – starting from No. 25 and going to No. 1 – in Roland Garros. Part 7 of the preview includes contenders 5-7.
  
  #7: Stanislas Wawrinka
  Wawrinka was an afterthought for a spot this high just a few months ago, but he came out of the gates on fire in 2008 and has only improved as the season moved to they clay. The Swiss, ever in the shadow of compatriot Roger Federer, opened this year's campaign with a runner-up finish in Doha. After a few lackluster performances, Wawrinka reached the quarterfinals of the Masters Series Indian Wells. He got off to a surprisingly inauspicious start on clay, losing to Tommy Robredo in the first round of the Masters Series Indian Wells, but it was a nonstop joy ride for him in the following weeks. Wawrinka made it to the Barcelona semifinals and then took out Safin, Murray, Ferrero, Blake, and Roddick en route to the Masters Series Rome final (lost to Djokovic in three sets). Surely tired from that brutal stretch and forced to make a quick turnaround in Hamburg, the No. 10 player in the world fell to Nicolas Kiefer in the second round. That loss is most likely an aberration to the rule that was his showings in Barcelona and Rome, and the latter is what we can expect for Wawrinka in Roland Garros. He has only played the French Open three times and has never made it past the third round, but he has also never been playing close to this well at any previous point in his career. With a career-high ranking in hand, Wawrinka will be seeded in the top 10 and therefore should avoid the top dirt-ballers until the fourth round, maybe even the quarterfinals. Barring a bad draw, as quarterfinal finish should be expected.
  
  #6: Nicolas Almagro
  Say what you will about Almagro's hard-court and grass-court game, but if it's a clay-court tournament, Almagro is in it to win it. To say he is a master on the red stuff probably would not even do him justice. The Spaniard has played in seven events on clay in 2008 and he has been eliminated prior to the quarterfinals only once. Almago even won two titles earlier in the season, first in Costa Do Sauipe (over Carlos Moya) and then two weeks later in Acapulco (over David Nalbandian). His other results on the slow stuff include a quarterfinal finish in Buenos Aires, runner-up in Valencia (lost to David Ferrer in a third-set tiebreaker), and quarterfinal showings in both Barcelona (lost to Denis Gremelmayr in a third-set tiebreaker) and Rome (retired to Novak Djokovic). Almagro's only loss before the quarterfinals came in Monte-Carlo, where he won two matches before running into fellow clay-court genius Igor Andreev in the third round. The only blemish on his resume heading into Roland Garros is a wrist injury that forced him to pull out of that Rome quarterfinal clash with Djokovic. It kept Almagro out of Hamburg, but most likely only for precautionary reasons. If Almagro is 100 percent for the French Open he is almost guaranteed to have his best-ever performance, because in four Paris appearances he has a surprisingly poor 3-4 match record. Other than the wrist, a terrible draw is the only--and I mean only--reason why Almagro should not sail through to the quarterfinals.
  
  #5: David Ferrer
  Ferrer exploded in 2007, establishing himself not only as bigtime dirt-baller, but also as an all-court threat. His hard-court exploits last year included titles in Auckland and Tokyo, and he also reached the quarterfinals in Cincinnati, the semifinals of the U.S. Open, the quarterfinals in Paris, and the final at the year-end Masters Cup. If the Spaniard can do all of that on faster surfaces, what can he do on clay for an encore this year? Well, we've already seen what he can do: Ferrer won it all in Valencia, made it to the quarterfinals in Monte-Carlo, and finished runner-up in Barcelona, where he took a set from Rafael Nadal. However, the grueling clay-court stretch seemed to catch up quickly with Ferrer, who lost his first match in Rome to Radek Stepanek and then lost to compatriot Fernando Verdasco in the third round of the Masters Series Hamburg. Assuming the No. 5 player in the world gets suitable rest after his efforts at the World Team Cup in Dusseldorf this week, he should be poised to tie or equal his best-ever performance at Roland Garros. Ferrer made it to the quarterfinals back in 2005, but in four other appearances he is never advanced past the third round. He has all the physical tools to go deep in Paris and he has never put those tools to use better than he has over the past two seasons. As long as Ferrer keeps his head screwed on and keeps racket-bashing to a minimum, someone is going to have to work outrageously hard to defeat him. Anything short of a quarterfinal appearance would be a huge disappointment and with a little luck, Ferrer has semifinal and even runner-up potential in him.

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