Your Call 7.14

Alright, all you clay-court junkies - after that brief intermission called "Wimbledon" (or "Wimbleton," if you're a Yank, including a certain 14-time Grand Slam singles champ who shall remain unnamed because I will be on a conference call with him at 1 pm today), it's back to the future: red dirt tennis! Among the mouth-watering matches on the docket for today is one that will may all of you dirt fans drool - Fabrice Santoro vs.Fabio Fognini. Let's savor the moment and call this a poor man's version of Federer vs. Nadal. Or a middle-income cube farm telephone jockey's answer to Robredo vs. Stepanek. In any event, we're just embarking on two solid weeks of premier clay-court tennis, and the three most notable events (Bastad, Stuttgart and Hamburg) are tour events of historic significance - and credibility.

Personally, I'd rather blow my brains out, or even go have cocktails with some long-lost former girlfriend with whom I never had anything in common, than watch any more clay-court tennis, although I see the appeal this mini-circuit holds for players who stand a good chance to wrack up a few more precious ATP ranking points. Gotta make hay while the sun shines, right?  And many of you are clay-besotted, so enjoy the lasts hurrah before the action moves to hard courts.

I'll be back a little later to report on what Mr. Sampras has to say, and in noble protest against this micro-season on clay, I think I'll get back to that coaching series in the coming days.

-- Pete