Davis Cup tennis has meant no tournament tennis for the ATP players since Miami almost a fortnight ago and Monday sees the clay court swing step up a gear as Roland Garros rapidly approaches. There’s another seven days before the tour heads to Europe for its first clay court tournament in Monte Carlo so players head to Africa and North America where Casablanca and Houston take centre stage.
A brief recap on this column’s last event and selection Novak Djokovic was eliminated at the last sixteen stage by a quite inspired Tommy Haas, meaning Djokovic left North America empty handed after earlier than expected defeats on courts and in conditions that would have suited. Indeed during Djokovic’s defeat to Haas, he hit 7 winners to 30 unforced errors, a statistic rarely associated with the Serbian. Incidentally, as I write this piece, Djokovic has just gone over on his ankle during his Davis Cup match with Sam Querrey and looks in a little discomfort. It remains to be seen whether he continues or rests up for the weeks ahead.
Back to the next seven days and Morocco is where we shall begin.
ATP Casablanca
The Grand Prix Hassan II, inaugurated in 1986, is entirely funded by Morocco’s King Mohammed VI and is the only tournament on the ATP Tour to take place in Africa. Defending champion Pablo Andujar returns to Casablanca looking to secure his third title here in as many seasons and will relish the return to his favoured clay courts, particularly as he’s won just three matches all season and hasn’t pieced two consecutive wins together since Cincinnati in August last year and that was largely due to a Janko Tipsarevic retirement. Prior to that, one has to go back as far as Belgrade in April 2012 to see any sort of form from the Spanish world number 56. It’s therefore unsurprising to see Andujar unseeded this week, despite his terrific form at the event. He’ll need to be invigorated by the Moroccan sunshine, with temperatures set to hit 24 degrees Celsius by next weekend. I wouldn’t be surprised in the slightest to see Andujar back to somewhere near his best this coming week but his form is nothing if not alarming and can be passed up this week.
Another player similar to Pablo Andujar in the sense he’s returning to his favoured clay courts is Frenchman Benoit Paire, yet unlike Andujar, has shown a decent level of form in 2013. Finalist in Montpellier and semi finalist in Chennai, Paire finds himself at 33rd in the ATP rankings, a career high for the 23 year-old from Avignon. In his one and only previous appearance in Casablanca, Paire made the last eight, losing in straight sets to Italian Flavio Cipolla who himself would’ve enjoyed the conditions underfoot. Paire however is a vastly improved player from twelve months ago and could excel this week. For those that know little of Paire, he’s a temperamental player who has the ability to blow a gasket at any time during a match and definitely comes with an advisory. That said, he could be worth chancing in an open-looking event and represents value if a price of 16/1 can be obtained.
Selection: Benoit Paire
ATP Houston
The second event on the circuit this week comes from Texas where the US Men’s Clay Court Championship has been located since 2001. Houston is unsurprisingly the only clay court event contested in the U.S. and is well attended by some of the tour’s top clay court players. Defending champion Juan Monaco returns soon after one win and one defeat for Argentina in their Davis Cup tussle in Buenos Aires with France. I think it’s fair to say the form of Monaco in 2013 has been disappointing after such a successful 2012 and I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before he turns it around. For now however, Monaco only has three wins to his name, all of which came during Davis Cup matches. Losses to Andrey Kuznetsov, Guillaume Rufin, Simone Bolelli, Marinko Matosevic, and Albert Ramos make it difficult to get excited about the chances of Monaco this week and I’ll take him on with a player who is equally adept on a clay court.
Nicolas Almagro wasn’t in Davis Cup action for Spain this week in Canada so should be as fresh as a daisy coming into Houston and could take some stopping. Almagro has already made two clay court semi finals this season in Buenos Aires and Acapulco. In addition, he is probably the most talented player on the surface that is participating this week. So where’s the catch? Well, a tricky second round match against either Gael Monfils or James Blake could be a potential banana skin. Beyond that, I’m struggling to see Almagro not making the final. The other seeded players in his half of the draw are Paolo Lorenzi, Sam Querrey, and Fernando Verdasco, all of whom Almagro really should have the measure of on the red stuff. It’s for that reason, Almagro is a pretty confident selection this week and whilst a price of 2/1 won’t make anybody rich in a hurry, should prove shrewd come next Sunday.
Selection: Nicolas Almagro
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