Monday Net Post
Last Week's Tournaments
Grand Prix Hassan II (ATP - Clay - Casablanca, Morocco)
Singles Bracket
- Juan Carlos Ferrero def. Florent Serra
Doubles Bracket - Lukasz Kubot/Oliver Marach def. Simon Aspelin/Paul Hanley
U.S. Men's Clay Court Championships (ATP - Clay - Houston, United States)
Singles Bracket
- Lleyton Hewitt def. Wayne Odesnik
Doubles Bracket - Bob Bryan/Mike Bryan def. Jesse Levine/Ryan Sweeting
Andalucia Tennis Experience (WTA - Clay - Marbella, Spain)
Singles & Doubles Brackets
- Jelena Jankovic def. Carla Suarez Navarro
- Klaudia Jans/Alicja Rosolska def. Anabel Medina Garrigues/Virginia Ruano Pascual
MPS Group Championships (WTA - Clay - Ponte Vedra Beach, United States)
Singles & Doubles Brackets
- Caroline Wozniacki def. Aleksandra Wozniak
- Chua-Jung Chuang/Sania Mirza def. Kveta Peschke/Lisa Raymond
McGrogan's Heroes
ATP - Juan Carlos Ferrero
Five and a half years after winning the Madrid Masters as world No. 1 in 2003, Juan Carlos Ferrero finally won his next title at the 2009 Grand Prix Hassan II in Casablanca.
Back in 2003, no one would have believed that sentence, or that these two events would occur during that same stretch of time:
- That one of 2003’s Grand Slam winners would capture 12 more major titles, while the remaining three would not win another.
- That a player – and not the aforesaid 13-Slam winner – would win four consecutive titles at Monte Carlo, Barcelona, and Roland Garros, and that Ferrero would stop him from trying to do the same in Rome.
All three of these events show how drastically the landscape of tennis can change. In 2003, Ferrero, Roger Federer and Andy Roddick, that season’s French Open, Wimbledon and U.S. Open champions, respectively, were entering their prime playing years and seemingly in command of their preferred playing surfaces. Only Federer would build on his Slam win, expanding his empire onto hard courts, which Roddick would often discover. As for clay – previously the domain of Ferrero’s (he won Rome once, Monte Carlo twice, and Roland Garros once) – a younger Spaniard named Rafael Nadal would come along and monopolize the surface as his own. Ferrero’s unofficial title of best clay-court player was no more.
Plenty of credit should be given to Federer and Nadal for their remarkable achievements. But we should also give credit to players like Roddick and Ferrero, who’ve kept working on the practice courts and battling in tournaments. Now 29, Ferrero has considered retirement, citing a lack of motivation after a decade on the pro tour. It’s good to see that he still had enough fight left to claim at least one more, long overdue title.
WTA - Jelena Jankovic
After a brutal month of March on American hard courts, Jelena Jankovic found salvation on something exactly the opposite – European clay courts. It's a small victory in the grand scheme of things for a player ranked in the Top 5 and burdened with massive expectations. But for the fragile Jankovic, it's probably still an important victory nonetheless.
I would suggest that Jankovic also use an opposing mental approach when playing, but I don't think she's capable of that kind of change at this stage of her career - the dramatic aspect of her play is too deeply ingrained. She needs to work with what she has: solid, but largely unthreatening ground strokes. If Jankovic is to ever meet these expectations (primarily, a Grand Slam champion), she simply must add more power to her game.
But on slower clay, Jankovic can get by with a weaker artillery. The surface diffuses her opponents' power slightly, leading to longer rallies, which Jankovic prefers. And if she can place her shots correctly, Jankovic has proven to be a tough out on dirt - five of her 10 career titles are on clay.
2009 could not have started worse for Jankovic - she lost the world No. 1 ranking, was upset at the Australian Open by Marion Bartoli, and was an utter failure at Indian Wells and Miami. But the clay-court season has begun, and for Jankovic, it couldn't have started any better.
Next Week's Tournaments
(TV Schedule)
Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters (ATP - Clay - Monte Carlo, Monaco)
Singles Bracket
Doubles Bracket
Barcelona Ladies Open (WTA - Clay - Barcelona, Spain)
Singles & Doubles Brackets
Family Circle Cup (WTA - Clay - Charleston, United States)
Singles & Doubles Brackets