Quantcast
nodot nodot
Between The Lines
April 1, 2001 Article

Contact Ray Bowers

Latest Between The Lines Article

Between The Lines Archives:
2003 - 2015
August 1998 - 2003
1995 - May 1998

Tennis Server
HOME PAGE

Do You Want To Be A Better Tennis Player?

Then Sign Up For A Free Subscription to the Tennis Server INTERACTIVE
E-mail Newsletter!

Tom Veneziano You will join 13,000 other subscribers in receiving news of updates to the Tennis Server along with monthly tennis tips from tennis pro Tom Veneziano.
 
Best of all, it is free!

Tennis Features Icon TENNIS FEATURES:

TENNIS ANYONE? - USPTA Pro John Mills' quick player tip.
 
TENNIS WARRIOR - Tom Veneziano's Tennis Warrior archive.
 
TURBO TENNIS - Ron Waite turbocharges your tennis game with tennis tips, strategic considerations, training and practice regimens, and mental mindsets and exercises.
 
WILD CARDS - Each month a guest column by a new writer.
 
BETWEEN THE LINES - Ray Bowers takes an analytical and sometimes controversial look at the ATP/WTA professional tour.
 
PRO TENNIS SHOWCASE - Tennis match reports and photography from around the world.
 
TENNIS SET - Jani Macari Pallis, Ph.D. looks at tennis science, engineering and technology.
 
MORTAL TENNIS - Greg Moran's tennis archive on how regular humans can play better tennis.
 
HARDSCRABBLE SCRAMBLE - USPTA pro Mike Whittington's player tip archive.
 
TENNIS EQUIPMENT TIPS.

Tennis Community Icon TENNIS COMMUNITY:


Tennis Book, DVD, and Video Index
 
Tennis Server Match Reports
 
Editor's Letter
 
Become a Tennis Server Sponsor

Explore The Tennis Net Icon EXPLORE THE TENNIS NET:

Tennis News and Live Tennis Scores
 
Tennis Links on the Web
 
nodot
Between The Lines By Ray Bowers
 
Green Dot
 
Tennis Warehouse Logo
 
Green Dot

 
nodot
High Achievers on the Clay

Ray Bowers Photo
Ray Bowers

If moon-ball tactics are largely absent in modern clay-court tennis, the back court remains the preferred place to be--a launch pad for power-laden forehands and backhands. To present one's opponent with a softish or shortish offering risks surrendering dominance probably for the rest of the point. Heavy ground-strokes off both sides are thus required among the pros, whether attacking, defending, or in a position of neutrality. Also needed is excellent court mobility--to reach the opponent's rockets and obtain body position to reply with equivalent heat. A strong serve, too, is important, to produce errors and weak replies from opponent and deny them the initiative.

But clay-court tennis at the pro level is not purely a power contest. The characteristically slow and low bounce seen on clay helps the clay-court artist in delivering overspin lobs, angled low shots, and droppers--weapons for moving the opponent about and creating openings. Variety can be the key to engineering points which culminate in the coup from forecourt. Such artistry produces a kind of tennis thoroughly delightful to the watcher.

The European clay season opens in mid-April at Estoril (Portugal) and Casablanca. Then come tournaments at Monte Carlo, Barcelona, Mallorca, and Munich, leading into the Italian, the German, and the French Opens, ending in June. (A few European clay events are also held in the weeks after Wimbledon and after the U.S. Open.)

Players from continental Europe and South America learn the slow-court game from youth and are typically the world's best at it. (Players from North America, Australia, Britain and South Africa generally learn on hard courts and rely to a greater extent on their volleying and serving abilities.)

Here, we seek to identify the 16 warriors whose performances on clay in recent times make them the prime contenders in the circuit just ahead. We start with last year's clay-court Top Eight, as determined by results at last year's Monte Carlo, Italian, and German Opens (Masters' series events), and the French Open. These are the clay-court events that are entered by virtually all the top pros.

  1. Kuerten (won French and German)
  2. Norman (won Italian)
  3. Pioline (won Monte Carlo)
  4. Ferrero
  5. Corretja
  6. Safin
  7. Squillari
  8. Hrbaty

We next add the winners of the recent clay-court circuit in South America and Mexico--four tournaments that ended in early March. Vicente of Spain won at Bogota (Colombia) and Coria of Argentina, 19, won at Vina del Mar (Chile). Kuerten won at Buenos Aires and Acapulco. Kuerten is already on our list, and we now add Vicente and Coria.

Guillermo Coria.
Guillermo Coria.

Coria's youth calls for a closer comment. I watched him closely last summer in a three-set duel with the German star Nicolas Kiefer on a slowish hard court in Washington. A baseliner, Coria, then just 18, took an early lead by virtue of Kiefer's errors and served out the first set at 5-4 by delivering four consecutive first serves, none of which were returned by the German. I wrote in my notebook that Coria plays basically defensively, hitting firmly but not overpoweringly. He moves very well and hits regularly toward the corners, I noted. After set one, Kiefer picked up his game and eventually comfortably defeated the teenager. During the three sets, Coria must have tried 8-10 droppers, all of which found the net. Kiefer then went on to defeat Manta and Gambill before losing in the semis to tournament-winner Correja. I noted mentally that Coria was one to watch for.

We next look at several proven winners in big-time clay events. Agassi, Kafelnikov, Moya, and Chang are former French Open champions, and Rios, Costa, Medvedev, and Sampras have won at least one clay-court Masters' event. (Pete won the Italian in 1994.) The player who has won the most such victories, perhaps surprisingly, is Medvedev, still only 26, who has won three German Opens and one Monte Carlo and was also a finalist in the French. We choose four of these stars for our prime list--Agassi and Kafelnikov, both of whom rank very high in current rankings on all surfaces, along with Medvedev and Moya. The Spanish player is gradually returning to contention after injuries.

Two places remain, and we find our choices in the recent tournaments at Indian Wells and Miami. From Indian Wells, where the hard courts are on the slowish side, we choose Lleyton Hewitt. The Aussie reached the final four by defeating clay-court stars Costa, Ulihrach, and Escude, and then became victim to Agassi in split sets. (In the final, Agassi defeated Sampras in three straight sets.) Finally, from the Ericsson in Miami, we pick Gaston Gaudio, 22, who there defeated both Kafelnikov and Ferrero and last year reached the semis at Monte Carlo.

All of our sixteen clay elites are from South America or Europe except for Agassi and Hewitt. (Four are from Spain and three from Argentina.) A majority are six-footers, including Safin and Medvedev at 6-4. The median age is 24; the oldest is Pioline at 31, the youngest Coria, 19.

Thus, behold our 16 nominees. But be wary, especially of the host of Argentine and Spanish players virtually co-equal with their better-known countrymen named here.

Who will break out of the pack this season to thrill tennis fandom everywhere?

--Ray Bowers

Green DotGreen DotGreen Dot

Between The Lines Archives:
1995 - May 1998 | August 1998 - 2003 | 2004 - 2015


If you have not already signed up to receive our free e-mail newsletter Tennis Server INTERACTIVE, you can sign up here. You will receive notification each month of changes at the Tennis Server and news of new columns posted on our site.

This column is copyrighted by Ray Bowers, all rights reserved.

Following interesting military and civilian careers, Ray became a regular competitor in the senior divisions, reaching official rank of #1 in the 75 singles in the Mid-Atlantic Section for 2002. He was boys' tennis coach for four years at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, Virginia, where the team three times reached the state Final Four. He was named Washington Post All-Metropolitan Coach of the Year in 2003. He is now researching a history of the early pro tennis wars, working mainly at U.S. Library of Congress. A tentative chapter, which appeared on Tennis Server, won a second-place award from U.S. Tennis Writers Association.

Questions and comments about these columns can be directed to Ray by using this form.


 

nodot
nodot
Google
Web tennisserver.com
nodot nodot
The Tennis Server
Ticket Exchange

Your Source for tickets to professional tennis & golf events.
 
SAI Team Tennis Tournament Tickets
 
Dallas Open Tickets
 
Delray Beach Open Tickets
 
ATX Open Tickets
 
BNP Paribas Open Tickets
 
Miami Open Tickets
 
Credit One Charleston Open Tickets
 
US Men's Clay Court Championships Tickets
 
Wimbledon Tickets
 
Infosys Hall of Fame Open Tickets
 
Atlanta Open Tickets
 
Mubadala Citi Open Tennis Tournament Tickets
 
National Bank Open Women's Tennis Canada Tickets
 
National Bank Open Men's Tennis Canada Tickets
 
Western & Southern Open Tickets
 
Winston-Salem Open Tickets
 
US Open Tennis Championship Tickets
 

 

Popular Tennis books:
 
Winning Ugly: Mental Warfare in Tennis-Lessons from a Master by Brad Gilbert, Steve Jamison
 
The Best Tennis of Your Life: 50 Mental Strategies for Fearless Performance by Jeff Greenwald
 
The Inner Game of Tennis by W. Timothy Gallwey
 
Most Recent Articles:
 
October 2022 Tennis Anyone: Patterns in Doubles by John Mills.
 
September 2022 Tennis Anyone: Short Court by John Mills.
 

 

 

 

"Tennis Server" is a registered trademark and "Tennis Server INTERACTIVE" is a trademark of Tennis Server. All original material and graphics on the Tennis Server are copyrighted 1994 - by Tennis Server and its sponsors and contributors. Please do not reproduce without permission.

The Tennis Server receives a commission on all items sold through links to Amazon.com.

 

Tennis Server
Cliff Kurtzman
Editor-in-chief
791 Price Street #144
Pismo Beach, CA 93449
Phone: (281) 480-6300
Online Contact Form
How to support Tennis Server as a Sponsor/Advertiser
Tennis Server Privacy Policy