With players putting away their hardcourt shoes for the time being the focus of the tennis world shifts to the red clay in Europe and the French Open looming at the end of May. This week sees the circuit visiting three venues in Estoril, Valencia and Houston. The Portugal and Spain tournaments will see deeper fields than the Houston tournament because most of the French Open contenders like to be in Europe as early as possible to get use to the conditions.

Estoril, Portugal is the 1st stop on this weeks review. Normally this tournament does not attract big name players because it is set the week before the Monte Carlo masters. However this year the event has the pleasure of seeing world number 1 Roger Federer grace Court Central at the Estadio Nacional. R-Fed is joined by recent Miami Champ Nikolay Davydenko and big serving Ivo Karlovic as the top 3 seeds. It will be interesting to see where Federer’s level of play is on clay. He is coming into the claycourt season in his worst form in the last 4 seasons.

Although I think if Federer is healthy he will have an extremely successful week in Portugal as well as the rest of the clay court season. R-Fed would never admit that has been saving his energy for the clay court season. In my opinion going into 2008, Roger had 4 goals in mind. The 1st being to win the French, 2nd to win Wimbledon, 3rd to win the Olympics and 4th to sustain the number 1 ranking. Clearly if he accomplishes the first 3 feats then the number 1 ranking will take care of itself. As well Federer has the luxury of not having defending champ Novak Djokovic in the field. Djokovic has opted to sit out this week and get ready for the 3 masters series that have been condensed into a 4 week span for 2008.

Federer opens his Estoril campaign against good friend and the shortest player on the circuit, Oliver Rochus. Do not be fooled though as Rochus is extremely steady off the ground and Roger will be extremely focused for this match. The last time these two players met the scoreline was 6-7(2) 7-6(9) 7-6(5) in favour of Federer. Second seed Nikolay Davydenko opens against Jergen Meltzer and should be good for a finals showing. Honestly the field here is not very strong, therefore if an R-Fed, Davydenko finals does not take place, both players should be very disappointed.

Our 2nd stop on this weeks previews takes us to the beautiful Valencia, Spain. The tournament boasts some serious clay court players, with David Ferrer as the top seed and Nicolas Almagro, the defending champion ready to take on competition. Almagro will be trying to add to his impressive 14-1 record on the clay this year. He has also won titles in Brazil and Acapulco. Other players that will be vying for the 2008 title are David Ferrer, Juan Mónaco, Juan Carlos Ferrero and Fernando Verdasco. Andy Murray was suppose to make the early trip to Spain this year as he looked to start his 2008 claycourt campaign on the right foot. However because of a virus, Murray will skip the event and begin to recover for Monte Carlo next week. Murray has recently hired Álex Corretja, who was a two time French Open runner-up. Corretja will coach Murray for the duration of the claycourt season. I see this as an excellent move as Corretja played a similar grinding style to Murray and he will be able to provide the necessary nuances that claycourt tennis involves. Provided they get along well as Murray is known for being a bit of hot head, this pairing should work out just fine.

David Ferrer, the tournament top seed seems to have an easy draw and should progress to at least the semi-finals. The bottom half of the draw is loaded with much better players as Almagro, Ferrero and Monaco will all be looking to start the clay court season with a victory. The winner of the Almagro/Monaco quarter-final should progress to the finals. The most exciting 1st round encounter to look out for is Ferrero against Marat Safin. The battle of two former number ones should be interesting as both Safin and Ferrero grew up and trained in Valencia. Safin will be some what rejuvenated with his come from behind win over Tomas Berdych in Davis Cup this weekend. Safin was down 2 sets to love in that match against a player with a big game and perhaps the same temperament as him. Look for Ferrero to squeeze through this encounter.

The last stop on this weeks preview takes place in Houston, Texas. As you guessed it the tournament will be loaded with American players and a few decent clay court players. James Blake will be happy that this tournament is held in Houston as its a short plain ride from North Carolina, where the Davis Cup was held this weekend. JB will likely skip Monte Carlo next week and get ready to join the tour in Europe when the Roma masters comes up later in May. The event also sees Indian Wells finalist Mardy Fish and German Tommy Haas participating. The best claycourter in the tournament is probably Augustin “Calleri-ed it” from Argentina. Although Augustin is relatively a better hard player he certainly knows his way around a claycourt.

I would like to see Latvian, Ernest Gublis break through in this tournament. I have talked highly of this youngster and after seeing him play and practice in Indian Wells and Miami I have become an even bigger fan. He is like a Marat Safin but seems to be more focused and mature.

The draw sees James Blake starts his Houston tournament off against the man who beat him in the finals of Delray earlier this year, Kei Nishikori from Japan. The 18 year old youngster will be looking for another surprise win over Blake and improve on his current rank of 118. Do not be surprised if Blake goes down in this match. Tommy Haas looks to have a decent passage towards at least the quarters. Tommy has been up and down this year with health, so anything is possible with the German. The field has 10 Americans entered and the hometown fans in Houston will be looking for an American to do some damage. Although I do not see an American making the finals.

Please check back for daily results and comments. As well please check out the links below the tournaments being played this week. Enjoy.

www.estorilopen.net

www.riveroaksinternational.com

www.open-comunidad-valenciana.com

Technorati Tags: Álex Corretja, David Ferrer, Fernando Verdasco, James Blake, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Juan Monaco, Kei Nishikori, Marat Safin, Mardy Rish, Nicolas Almagro, Nikolay Davydenko, Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, Tommy Haas

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