Article

  • Americans Holding Own in Early French Open Preview

    4/19/08 5:20 PM | Ricky Dimon
    - Too many times in the past the Americans’ efforts at the French Open have been defined by losing early to much lower ranked players who thrive on the red clay. In Houston this week, that’s only been partly the case.

    Americans were 0-9 at Roland Garros last year. That’s right; not one of nine American men entered in the main draw made it out of the first round.

    As bad as that was, it wasn’t much better than their 2006 French Open campaign. Only James Blake advanced to the second round (before losing to Gael Monfils in the third round).

    Will this year be any different? Any number of pages could be written on this subject, but for now let’s just take this week’s results as an indication.

    Most of the American men who played this week—11 of them—were in Houston, Texas for the U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championship. Two, top-seeded James Blake and unseeded Wayne Odesnik, still remain. Overall the Americans have compiled a solid 12-9 match record. Less than half (five) lost in the first round, and at least on of them had to lose in the first round since an all-American battle between Odesnik and Amer Delic took place. Of the four who lost to foreigners, none—in my estimation—were favored to win. Robby Ginepri fell to Dudi Sela, Sam Querrey lost to clay-court specialist Nicolas Massu, big man John Isner was taken on by Argentine Sergio Roitman, and another dirt-balling Argentine, Agustin Calleri, smoked Vincent Spadea.

    Surprise American winners in the first round included 15-year-old Ryan Harrison and to a lesser extent Donald Young. Harrison obviously will not be in this year’s French Open, but his play certainly bodes well for the future. The biggest surprise has been Odesnik, who scored impressive wins over Sela and Roitman after taking out Delic. It would a be a huge step if he upset clay master Marcel Granollers-Pujol in Saturday’s semifinals, but either way Odesnik looks like he could at least win one match at Roland Garros as long as he does not get a horrific draw.

    As for the two biggest American names in Houston—Blake and Mardy Fish—it has been promising. Fish relies on huge serving, big groundstrokes to overcome less than stellar movement, so the fact that he won two matches on clay this week is great for his confidence on the dirt. Losing to Oscar Hernandez in the quarterfinals had to be considered expected, and Fish at least took one set to a tiebreaker. Blake, meanwhile, got revenge for an earlier loss to Kei Nishikori in the first round, taught Harrison a lesson in the second, and erased Calleri, who I picked to win the tournament, in the third. It looks American tennis fans can count on Blake to win at least one or two matches at the French, even if he draws a clay-courter early.

    Then again, did anyone really expect Americans to go 0-9 at Roland Garros last year?

Tell a friend »

Comments


Write comment

You have to be logged in to comment. If you do not have an account, click here to register. It only takes a minute and you'll be redirected back to this page.
Username:

Password: