Ricky Dimon

• Top 25 French Open Contenders: Part 2

  2010-05-11 05:06:26
  

  From now until the start of the French Open, Ricky will be counting down the Top 25 biggest threats on the red clay of Roland Garros in groups of one, two, or three players. Part 2 features contenders 20-22.
  

   

  22. Philipp Kohlschreiber – Pros: A strong clay-court player, Kohlschreiber had never done well at the French Open prior to last year. That all changed when he stunned an in-form Novak Djokovic 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 to reach the fourth round. The German kicked off his 2010 clay-court campaign with a quarterfinal appearance in Monte-Carlo, where he destroyed Andy Murray 6-2, 6-1 in addition to wins over Thomaz Bellucci and Philipp Petzschner. Kohlschreiber is ranked 29th in the world and even though he is out of Madrid, that should be enough to earn him a seed for Roland Garros.

   

  Cons: His Monte-Carlo performance notwithstanding, Kohlschreiber has not been in particularly good form of late. He drew Rafael Nadal early in Rome, lost to clay-court novice Marcos Baghdatis in the Munich quarterfinals, and dropped his Madrid opener to qualifier Santiago Giraldo. Kohlschreiber heated up in 2009 at the World Team Championships in Dusselford, and he will have to do the same this time around if he wants to go into Paris with any kind of momentum.

   

  Bottom line: Kohlschreiber should be able to reach the third round, and another trip to round four is not out of the question if he gets put in a bracket with one of the “weaker” top players (on clay, at least), such as Andy Roddick, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, or Marin Cilic.

   

  21. John Isner – Pros: Isner was ranked 112th in the world at this time last year and he missed both the French Open and Wimbledon due to mono. For the last 10 months, however, he has been playing like absolute gangbusters and he is up to a career-high ranking of No. 19. That will earn the 6’9’’ American a great seed for Roland Garros, and it looks like he will be able to capitalize on it based on his most recent clay-court performance. Isner, whose high-bouncing serve actually works extremely well on the slow stuff, finished runner-up to Sam Querrey in Belgrade and was one point away from winning the title.

   

  Cons: There is not much you can say bad about Isner right now, except maybe that Roland Garros is not played on fast U.S. hard courts. He has always done his best work on those surfaces, and it remains to be seen how he will perform at a clay-court Grand Slam. Isner has appeared in just one French Open, and he lost in the 2008 first round to Juan Ignacio Chela, squandering a two-set lead in the process.
  
  Bottom line: Isner has been playing stellar tennis this entire season, no matter the surface. With a few pullouts and/or a couple of wins in Madrid, he will get a Top 16 seed at Roland Garros and have a clear path to the fourth round. In fact, even if he runs into some clay-court specialists, Isner has proven that he can beat them (surprised Stanislas Wawrinka in the Belgrade semifinals).

   

  20. Sam Querrey – Pros: Looks like some Americans have finally learned how to play on clay. In fact, the Querrey-Isner Belgrade final was the first all-American final on European clay-courts since the 1991 French Open, in which Jim Courier defeated Andre Agassi. Let’s not get carried away by thinking that Querrey and Isner are on their way to becoming French Open champions like Courier and Agassi, but they are certainly on the rise. Querrey has always been pretty good on the slow stuff and given his current form (he also reached a clay-court final in Houston), he could very well make a run to the second week in Paris.

   

  Cons: Like Isner, Querrey is still at his best on U.S. hard courts. He is nothing if not inconsistent on clay, as his first-round Rome loss to Julien Benneteau suggests. Furthermore, the 22-year-old has never won a single match at the French Open (0-3 lifetime).

   

  Bottom line: He is ranked 22nd in the world, so he will need a huge result in Madrid in order to get a Top 16 seed. Either way, I think Querrey has a better chance than Isner of making a really deep run at Roland Garros because he can hold up better in five-set clay-court matches, but he also is more susceptible to a first-round exit. For Querrey, it could be all or nothing.

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