The Clay Court Season

[Hs0022]

Since there was no clay season thread, thought I’d open one.

It’s the Lieutenant vs Colonel final at Monte Carlo Masters ! Should be a good one. Musetti has long been portrayed as a potential big time winner on clay especially and he may pull off the upset vs an erratic Alcaraz!

 

[Old Lion]

I will check the scores. I wont watch much mud ball.

 

[Hs0022]

Alcaraz is finding form early on in clay season. He especially thrived in 3 setters and coming back from a set deficit. Should be interesting to see if he is gonna go for all the three masters ( Rome, Monte Carlo and Madrid, since he is doing Barcelona as well).

He may skip out of one of the masters event to stay fresh for FO. I hope he plays the last one before FO.

 

[Hs0022]

Alcaraz back to # 2. Thanks to Sinner’s absence, and other players coming short and a streak of brilliance from him combining to elevate his ranking back to #2. Consistency is unfortunately not his best friend so far and it’s been peaks and drops for him performance wise.

He has to figure out his strongest surface. Not sure if it’s clay. Nadal used to rack up Points during clay season and also defend it properly every year to amass so much that it kept him in top three for a very long time.

 

[Old Lion]

Alcaraz back to # 2. Thanks to Sinner’s absence, and other players coming short and a streak of brilliance from him combining to elevate his ranking back to #2. Consistency is unfortunately not his best friend so far and it’s been peaks and drops for him performance wise.

He has to figure out his strongest surface. Not sure if it’s clay. Nadal used to rack up Points during clay season and also defend it properly every year to amass so much that it kept him in top three for a very long time.

He probably is best on clay still. At least with Djoker getting old.

 

[bksballer89]

He probably is best on clay still. At least with Djoker getting old.

Him followed by Ruud

 

[bksballer89]

Rune beat Ruud and Alcaraz on his way to a title in Barcelona.

 

[nuraman00]

Since there was no clay season thread, thought I’d open one.

It’s the Lieutenant vs Colonel final at Monte Carlo Masters ! Should be a good one. Musetti has long been portrayed as a potential big time winner on clay especially and he may pull off the upset vs an erratic Alcaraz!

I'm disappointed I missed the Monte Carlo Masters finals. I couldn't remember if it was this week or the next week.

 

[nuraman00]

Him followed by Ruud

Yeah Ruud is pretty good.

 

[nuraman00]

Rune beat Ruud and Alcaraz on his way to a title in Barcelona.

Wow, nice.

 

[Hs0022]

Rune was hyped before Alcaraz had his breakout season. Not sure if this was just a freak burst of flame in the Barcelona win. So far among the 20+ year olds Sinner is the only one who has shown consistency enough to live up to hype.
Maybe this is our next Big Three. Who knows!

 

[Hs0022]

Alcaraz pulled out of Madrid! I half expected him to do that and fully expected if I had known the injury. I suspected something but wasn’t sure.

Fun fact Madrid used to be on Blue clay which was believed to have been a faster surface and myth has it it helped Fed’s game, hence his titles there.

 

[nuraman00]

It was only on blue clay for one year I think.

They did it because they thought it helped with the contrast for viewers.

I agree with them. I think yellow on blue visually makes the ball easy to see. I think the Australian Open has the best visuals.

It's too bad most players didn't like it. I wasn't there on the courts, but I don't think the court was really that different, it was just color.

 

[hwkn]

The Madrid Open was cancelled today due to a power outage in Spain,Portugal and Southern France…..according to the Tennis Channel it’s been going on for about 8 hours so far.

 

[Hs0022]

Never heard of a power outage before stopping play. Were the day matches canceled? That doesn’t make sense. All the charm gone after Alcaraz withdrew and Djoker lost.

 

[Hs0022]

It was only on blue clay for one year I think.

They did it because they thought it helped with the contrast for viewers.

I agree with them. I think yellow on blue visually makes the ball easy to see. I think the Australian Open has the best visuals.

It's too bad most players didn't like it. I wasn't there on the courts, but I don't think the court was really that different, it was just color.

Yeah I forgot it was only for one year. Fed won that year I believe. He actually beat Nadal on one of his wins probably on the blue clay. I googled it and it was Hardcourts a long time ago, which he won, then red clay on which he won and finally on blue clay. They changed it back to red after that I think.

His racquet head size and the aversion to switch up the backhand grip against Nadal cost him many clay title vs his nemesis

 

[nuraman00]

Yeah I forgot it was only for one year. Fed won that year I believe. He actually beat Nadal on one of his wins probably on the blue clay. I googled it and it was Hardcourts a long time ago, which he won, then red clay on which he won and finally on blue clay. They changed it back to red after that I think.

His racquet head size and the aversion to switch up the backhand grip against Nadal cost him many clay title vs his nemesis

Djokovic would be an even greater nemesis.

Ended up not beating him at a major after 2012 Wimbledon.

Had match points on him in 2019 Wimbledon.

 

[nuraman00]

Yes Federer beat Nadal at the 2009 Madrid Masters on clay.

That 2009 Madrid Masters was one of my favorites. You had a SF match between Djokovic and Nadal that was the longest best of 3 match in history at the time. Nadal had to save 3 match points to win. It's rare to see a match where both players have match points. I think Djokovic saved at least one match point too.

Then in the finals, Federer got a rare win over Nadal on clay. I'm not going to give Nadal the out of having played a long match.

He's won many matches in his career having played long matches the match before. 2009 Australian Open is one example.

Also, he's an all time great, so he can beat anyone, even at 97%.

 

[nuraman00]

Yeah I forgot it was only for one year. Fed won that year I believe. He actually beat Nadal on one of his wins probably on the blue clay. I googled it and it was Hardcourts a long time ago, which he won, then red clay on which he won and finally on blue clay. They changed it back to red after that I think.

His racquet head size and the aversion to switch up the backhand grip against Nadal cost him many clay title vs his nemesis

Yes, 2008 was the last time Madrid was played on hard courts. It was in October at that time.

In 2009, they switched it to clay, and played it in May. It was actually even played after Rome.

Now, however, Madrid is played before Rome.

 

[nuraman00]

His racquet head size and the aversion to switch up the backhand grip against Nadal cost him many clay title vs his nemesis

The 2011 FO Finals was the closest chance FED had at the FO. Was up 5-2 on him in the first set. Had he won that set, it probably at least goes 5 sets.