What’s wrong about this place? Visually… nothing! Is the atp schedule too much for Americans? Maybe.. Fact is that we could see a real hat-rick this coming weekend. If no Americans show for the singles tournament in Monte-Carlo, it will be third consecutive year without Americans present. Roddick, Blake and company seems to regard this as a tournament placed very inconveniently in April, when everything on clay happens in May. Wrong! Clay season, as we know it, goes from early April to early June. Are there no important points to catch here?
Roddick and Blake could potentially boost their ranking importantly before grass if they just signed up for it. You get 125 for a QF! QF reached by winning 2 matches! In comparison you need a 5-0 streak to win the 175 normal tournaments like Houston. Perhaps practice over ranking is the idea, but still don’t get why they choose not to play. The only reason I see is not wanting to travel from their home for Monte-Carlo and not come back until July when things start up in North America, meaning that they want to stick around at home until Rome in May and go nuts on clay from that point on. But here is an idea… you have to deal with Spain in September in DC… how about sacrificing this year’s faimily reunion and play all clay events for optimal prep? No? well you need all the help you can get before heading to Madrid, so good luck
Anyway.. these initial tournaments are boring. I am awaiting a Fed-Davydenko final on Sunday and Monaco on Monday. Who will win Estoril and who will hit the Monte-Carlo final?
Fed, Federer, Federererer i think
