European clay court season

[Denis]

My favorite part of the tennis season.

Coming up (some new tourneys as well):

April
06.04.2015 Grand Prix Hassan II Casablanca, Morocco
12.04.2015 Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters Monte-Carlo, Monaco
20.04.2015 Barcelona Open Banc Sabadel Barcelona, Spain
20.04.2015 BRD Nastase Tiriac Trophy Bucharest, Romania
27.04.2015 BMW Open by FWU AG Munich, Germany
27.04.2015 Millennium Estoril OpenEstoril, Portugal
27.04.2015 TEB BNP Paribas Istanbul Open Istanbul, Turkey
May
03.05.2015 Mutua Madrid Open Madrid, Spain
10.05.2015 Internazionali BNL d'Italia Rome, Italy
17.05.2015 Open de Nice Côte d’Azur Nice, France
17.05.2015 Geneva Open Geneva, Switzerland
24.05.2015 Roland Garros

Novak, Kei, Stan, and Rafa did quite well last year. Who do you expect to do well?

 

[herios]

Just a geographical observation, Casablanca is not in Europe, also if you include Casablanca, why not Houston as well, then you have mentioned all clay events leading up to RG.
By the way, Houston field is a lot stronger than the one in Casablanca.

 

[Denis]

Just a geographical observation, Casablanca is not in Europe, also if you include Casablanca, why not Houston as well, then you have mentioned all clay events leading up to RG.
By the way, Houston field is a lot stronger than the one in Casablanca.

Nope, but I consider it to be part of the European swing. Houston is further off and the US does not have a strong clay court tradition.

But for your reference:

06.04.2015 Fayez Sarofim & Co. U.S. Men's Clay Court Championship
Houston, U.S.A.

 

[Front242]

Houston, we have a problem.

 

[Billie]

They can have as many clay tournaments as they want, there is only 1 that is getting everybody excited.

 

[Riotbeard]

They can have as many clay tournaments as they want, there is only 1 that is getting everybody excited.

Monte Carlo? That's my favorite.

 

[Billie]

They can have as many clay tournaments as they want, there is only 1 that is getting everybody excited.

Monte Carlo? That's my favorite.

Try again

That is my favourite as well.

 

[TennisFanatic7]

If Andy reaches the final of any of these tournaments, I'll call it a successful clay swing.

He already won't be playing in Monaco.

 

[Billie]

If Andy reaches the final of any of these tournaments, I'll call it a successful clay swing.

He already won't be playing in Monaco.

Somebody told me that there is an article in Telegraph about Murray, upcoming wedding arrangements and that apparently Andy said that he is yet to decide about MC participation. They won't be going to their honeymoon till November so there is a possibility that he might play MC.

 

[GameSetAndMath]

If Andy reaches the final of any of these tournaments, I'll call it a successful clay swing.

He already won't be playing in Monaco.

Somebody told me that there is an article in Telegraph about Murray, upcoming wedding arrangements and that apparently Andy said that he is yet to decide about MC participation. They won't be going to their honeymoon till November so there is a possibility that he might play MC.

As MC is not a mandatory event, players need to sign up for it six weeks before and Andy has
not signed up. If he asks for a wild card, of course he will get one. But, I doubt that he will ask.

 

[TennisFanatic7]

I'm sure Andy will be desperate to return to this tournament...

2006 - Lost first round to Lisnard
2008 - Lost 6-0 6-4 to Nole in the third round
2009 - Lost 6-2 7-6 to Rafa in the semis after beating Davydenko, not bad
2010 - Lost 6-2 6-1 to Kohli, yikes
2011 - Lost to Nadal in the semis but did manage to take a set
2012 - Lost in quarters to Berdych
2013 - Lost 6-1 6-2 to Stan in the third round

 

[Billie]

If Andy reaches the final of any of these tournaments, I'll call it a successful clay swing.

He already won't be playing in Monaco.

Somebody told me that there is an article in Telegraph about Murray, upcoming wedding arrangements and that apparently Andy said that he is yet to decide about MC participation. They won't be going to their honeymoon till November so there is a possibility that he might play MC.

As MC is not a mandatory event, players need to sign up for it six weeks before and Andy has
not signed up. If he asks for a wild card, of course he will get one. But, I doubt that he will ask.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/celebritynews/11514008/Andy-Murray-doesnt-care-about-any-wedding-plans-other-than-the-food.html

 

[herios]

Just a geographical observation, Casablanca is not in Europe, also if you include Casablanca, why not Houston as well, then you have mentioned all clay events leading up to RG.
By the way, Houston field is a lot stronger than the one in Casablanca.

Nope, but I consider it to be part of the European swing. Houston is further off and the US does not have a strong clay court tradition.

The lack of tradition of Houston event did not matter, because it attracted much higher ranked players than Casablanca did.
The top seed in Maroc us GG Lopez, ranked 24, he would be seeded 5 was he going to enter in the Houston event.

 

[JesuslookslikeBorg]

I really wish murray would play a 250 or 500 clay (not Barcelona with rafa and ferrer in it though)..

surely he wants to win a title on clay at some point in his career ?. even if only an atp250 clay tourney.

 

[GameSetAndMath]

They should really move Hamburg into European clay season and conduct it in parallel to
Barcelona. So, we will have two parallel ATP 500 events (one for Spaniards and one for the
rest).

 

[GameSetAndMath]

Rafa is currently ranked #5, but will be seeded #3 in Monte Carlo as Andy (most probably) and Kei are not playing. If he can win MC, then he will vault all the way to #3 in rankings.

 

[Moxie]

Nehmeth mentioned on the Novak thread that Djokovic should perhaps consider skipping MC? Or, at least, he shouldn't worry about it. Rafa, on the other hand, needs to come out strong. And I think Murray should enjoy his wedding and skip it. I like JLLB's notion that Andy should play a smaller one.

 

[nehmeth]

Nehmeth mentioned on the Novak thread that Djokovic should perhaps consider skipping MC? Or, at least, he shouldn't worry about it. Rafa, on the other hand, needs to come out strong. And I think Murray should enjoy his wedding and skip it. I like JLLB's notion that Andy should play a smaller one.

Novak was playing mediocre tennis today. He seems mentally fatigued and needing a break. Since MC is optional it might be wisdom to take a break.

 

[GameSetAndMath]

Nehmeth mentioned on the Novak thread that Djokovic should perhaps consider skipping MC? Or, at least, he shouldn't worry about it. Rafa, on the other hand, needs to come out strong. And I think Murray should enjoy his wedding and skip it. I like JLLB's notion that Andy should play a smaller one.

How about a small one like Istanbul? :snicker

 

[GameSetAndMath]

Nehmeth mentioned on the Novak thread that Djokovic should perhaps consider skipping MC? Or, at least, he shouldn't worry about it. Rafa, on the other hand, needs to come out strong. And I think Murray should enjoy his wedding and skip it. I like JLLB's notion that Andy should play a smaller one.

Novak was playing mediocre tennis today. He seems mentally fatigued and needing a break. Since MC is optional it might be wisdom to take a break.

I don't think he will. This is his prime time and so he would want to play full schedule. His
six non-mandatory events will most probably be Doha, Dubai, MC, Queens, Beijing and DC.

Novak does not have to win MC. It is enough if he does a decent job. Also, he will get
two weeks break after than before the Madrid-Rome doubleheader. That should be good
enough for rejuvenation.