With the clay court season kicking off this week, many players and fans will be looking forward to some world class tennis in the next two months. The grueling claycourt season is particularly hard this year because the calender has been condensed and players will be forced to play three claycourt masters series in the matter of 4 week span, ouch! I think fans should look for many injuries and withdraws from the top players as the inconsistent ATP has once again not found a way to keep its product in good form. Thus this up hill climb culminating at the French Open will require players to be smart and sustain an incredible amount of focus.

Players like Rafa Nadal and David Ferrer will be looking for an oxygen tank on the side lines with the amount of running that they will be doing. Nadal has already voiced his displeasure with the ATP’s calender switch this year by saying: “It’s an outrageous way to treat European and claycourt players.” “The truth is the ATP is making our lives almost impossible”.”We only have three Masters Series events and we have to play them with an important tournament like Barcelona all running together”. Clearly Nadal will need to be super sharp over the next 2 months, otherwise oxygen might not be the only thing that he will be missing as his number 2 ranking will take a serious hit.

One player in particular, world number 1 Roger Federer will be looking to breathe easy during this years claycourt season. R-Fed will be looking to capture the one grand slam that he has not captured, the elusive French Open. Federer has been without a coach for close to a year now and it was announced this week that Jose Higueras the great Spanish coach will assist Roger throughout the claycourt season. In the hopes that he will be crowned the 2008 French Open winner.

It seems that Federer has finally realized that he does not quite know the claycourt game well enough. The spins and movement on the dirt are not his natural forte. Surely he does not want to go down to 3-time defending champ Rafa Nadal for a 4th straight year. Bringing on Higueras as his coach will allow Federer the assurance that is required for claycourt tennis. Higueras is well known for his coaching prowess. His coaching resume includes, taking 17 year Micheal Chang to the 1989 French Open title. He has also coached Jim Courier a 2 time winner at the French as well as Pete Sampras and Robby Ginepri. Jose is a world renowned claycourt coach and will be a valuable asset to the world number one. My guess is that Higueras’s most important piece advice to Roger will be: FIGHT HARD AND DON’T BE AFRAID TO BE OUT THERE FOR 5 HOURS. Nadal has clearly put forth that type of effort and he was been rewarded 3 times over.

The coming weeks will reveal how much of an impact the condensed claycourt season has on the sports top stars. Rafa Nadal will fight his way through the next month and half and he will be looking to get in as many breathes as possible as there are no easy matches on clay and the conditions require a lot of heart.

Look for perhaps a much dirtier Roger Federer this spring. Brown socks and maybe even some clay on his bandanna. Because that is truly the only way to do it on clay. You need to get out there and fight for your life. With the recent move to pick up Estoril in his clay court preparation this year as well as hiring Higuears, R-Fed can finally look forward to a French Open crown as well as doing a lot of laundry this spring.

Technorati Tags: David Ferrer, Jose Higueras, Pete Sampras, Rafael Nadal, Robby Ginepri, Roger Federer

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