One player that surely will not be happy about this down grade is Roger Federer. The Swiss virtuoso has claimed 4 masters series shields at the event, making it his most successful clay court tournament. Simply put, Hamburg is the way Federer likes it. Cold and quick, making it more like a hard court. If the last few French Open finals provided weather similar to Hamburg, then I am sure the Swiss would have 1 of not 2 French Open crowns. However the hot and slow conditions of the last few year in Paris clearly favoured Nadal and his grinding game style.

Both Federer and Nadal will be looking to impose their last stands of dominance on the tennis scene this week. Since both made the finals last year, it is very important to their rankings that a good showing is put forth this year as well. Particularly for Nadal as he lost 465 points with his injured 2nd round exit in Rome, he can not afford the same type of incident this week. Even though R-Fed is defending champ, he has a little bit more breathing room now, as Nadal is playing serious catch up.

Tour Veterans Carlos Moya and Lleyton Hewitt will look to progress deep in the event, as they both made the semi-finals last year. Moya will certainly be looking for a great week again, because if he loses early as he has been doing as of late, he will take a big hit in the rankings and being almost 32 years of age, it only gets harder to come back. Hewitt on the other hand has troubles of a different natural, the Aussie has been battling a troubled hip flexor and his is in doubt for the event. It seems as though all the years of grinding away has finally caught up with the 27 year old. Do not be surprised if Nadal follows suit and ends up like Hewitt in the coming years.

On to the draw break down and like I say for every masters series, good matches are always on the horizon. Potential clashes to look for are Federer versus David Ferrer in the quarter-finals, Nadal and Andy Murray in the 3rd round, and Djokovic and Nicolas Almagro in the quarters. The draw looks much easier for all the top guys this week as opposed to Roma last week. If Nadal is healthy and the blister on his foot has recovered then he should breeze through the draw as per usual. Federer has an easier road as well. Both Nadal and Djokovic are on the other side of the draw and R-Fed’s biggest worries of the week should be Ferrer on his road to his fifth final. Again I’m that is on paper, Roger has not been in the greatest form this year, and loses to Stepanek and Mardy Fish are becoming more and more regular. It will also be interesting to see how Djokovic does this week, as he is coming off of a long week in Roma. Historically, Novak does not play well in a tournament after he as made the final the previous week.

As always please check back regularly as we will have daily updates and comments. Please check out the link below to the official tournament site. Our to the French Open is almost here, and this week in Hamburg will prove to be another week of world class tennis.

Masters Series Hamburg: http://www.dtb-tennis.de/AmRothenbaum/

Technorati Tags: Andy Murray, Carlos Moya, David Ferrer, Lleyton Hewitt, Nicolas Almagro, Novak Djokovic, Rafeal Nadal, Roger Federer

The implications of Nadals loss will be very evident on his ranking, as he will lose 465 points because he was the defending champ in Roma. As well because Roger Federer progressed deep in the tournament the point gap is even more widened. Nadal stands to drop another 555 points behind Federer in his quest for the number one ranking. Perhaps now Rafa’s main concern should be fighting off number three ranked Novak Djokovic as the Serbian in making a strong case for the number 2 spot.

No result can ever be greater than a Nadal loss on clay, but this years edition of the Roma masters also had some pleasant surprises. Americans Andy Roddick and James Blake moved through the draw in convincing fashion and progressed to the semi and quarter-finals respectively. This will surely boost the confidence level of both Blake and Roddick as they look to improve on their dismal French Open records.

The play of relatively unknown Stanislas Wawrinka has been outstanding as of late. The number two ranked Swiss has made the semi and finals of his last two events and as a result in will move into the top 10 for the first time. Its not like Switzerland does not have enough to cheer about already, as the country now looks to have two super stars to follow.

TheATPblog.com’s player for the month of May, Nicolas Almagro also had a great tournament. He progressed to the quarter-finals and improved on his already impressive clay court record. As I’ve mentioned in the past Almagro will be a rough customer to deal with at the French this year. If can seize the moment, sky is the limit for this Spaniard.

Roger Federer also had good tournament results this week. I can not say he had great week as he did not win the title. At this stage and level that R-Fed is at, every week comes with great expectations and some sort of hardware has to be taken home. Frankly, Federer losing to the aging none clay court player Radek Stepanek in the quarter-finals is a bad loss.

Great result for Djokovic as he claimed his 1st masters series title on clay. I would not put him as a favourite just yet for the French Open crown as his road to the title in Roma included 2 retirements and a pretty easy draw. I still put Federer and Nadal ahead of Djokovic in terms of French Open favorites.

On a closing note the ATP and masters series organizers need to serious look at how harmful the calender is for players. As a result of the condensed calender, Roma had retirements in 5 matches as players are starting to break down because they are forced to play back to back weeks. Having two retirements in the semi-finals was disappointing for everyone involved in the tournament and seriously needs to be looked into.

Technorati Tags: Andy Roddick, James Blake, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Nicolas Almagro, Novak Djokovic, Radek Stepanek, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Stanislas Wawrinka

Babolat Storm Limited Specs:

- Weight:11.3 ounces
- Head light balance of 305mm
- Slightly thinner than 200 g Dunlop
- Flex is 65
- Babolat leather grip, which is also called natural grip
- Colour of the racquet is: black with yellow trim

Technorati Tags: Babolat Storm Limited

Almagro turned pro in 2003 and is currently coached by Antonio Gonzalez. The native of Murcia, Spain is also improving on hardcourts. Many fans will remember him for his YouTube clip with his match against Mikhail Youzney from Russia. The third round encounter in Miami proved to be a “hit” with the fans as Youzney upset with himself deep in the third set, decided to whack himself over the head, and subsequently taking a time out because he was bleeding profusely.

Almagro’s full name is Nicolas Almagro Sanchez and his Spanish colleagues call him “Nico”. Not surprisingly his favoriate surface is clay and much like the rest of the Spanish contingent he like to keep track of the Spanish soccer teams. He has 4 career titles all on clay and he is focused on changing that and using is physical presence to achieve some hard and grass court success. A key component for Nicolas to develop into a better fast court player is to work on developing a bigger 1st serve. He is usually very content with hitting a heavy kicker to start the point, put that is not good enough to get it done at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open.

The next month of the season will be key for Almagro to round up as many points as he possibly can. He has three big claycourt tournaments to go, starting with Roma this week and Hamburg and the French Open to follow. Nicolas is headed up the rankings quickly and I see him being between 10-12 by the end of May. Almagro is just another example of a Spanish Armada and their continued desire to produce world class tennis players and champions.

Technorati Tags: Antonio Gonzalez, Mikhail Youzney, Nicolas Almagro

As defending champion, Nadal will have to wrestle through a fierce crowd of challengers with all top 20 players entered this year. Rafa will look to meet his chief rival Federer in the finals, although before either of them can even think about that possibility they will each have to take out 4 tough foes in order to make the dream match up happen.

Novak Djokovic will certainly have something to say that as he is eager to crash the 1 and 2 party, but he has not looked that great in the last few tournaments himself. His fitness is once again an issue and clay is clearly not his best surface. His semi-final withdraw to R-Fed in Monte Carlo last month was an indication that he is saving himself for the majors and summer hardcourt season. Look for Novak to progress deep in the draw but not win the title.

On to the draw break down and as I’ve said before, masters series always provide great opening round matches. Roger Federer will be challenged straight out of the blocks as he faces Guillermo Canas in the opening round. Federer also has the potential of playing Paul-Henri Mathieu in the 3rd round and David Ferrer in the quarters. If R-Fed can get through that mess then he has the daunting task of facing either David Nalbandian, Novak Djokovic or Nicolas Almagro in the semi-finals.

As mentioned Novak Djokovic will potentially face Federer in the semi-finals, although he has potential clashes with Juan Monaco, David Nalbandian or Nicolas Almagro on his way to the semi-finals. I believe Novak can make the finals because Federer might be thinking of Hamburg next week as he is the defending champion at that event. Last year in Roma, Federer lost in the second round and does not have any points to defend this week. Therefore an early Federer exit is highly likely.

Rafa’s draw looks not as rough as the Federer and Djokovic half, as he has to contend with non clay court players James Blake and Andy Roddick on his road to the finals. Honestly if fatigue is not the culprit with Nadal this week, I believe his 4th final at the Floro Italico should be a cake walk. It will be interesting to see how Nadal keeps up his fantastic form as of late, and if he enters Hamburg next week. Unfortunately for the Hamburg masters next week, I believe the event will take a hit with its player entries.

As always please check back throughout the week with updates on matches as well as comments. Please check out the link below to the official tournament site. Enjoy!

On the 1st review of the week and Barcelona, Spain. No suprises at this years Open Sabadell Atlantico as home town hero and rock star Rafeal Nadal stormed the strong competition in his native backyard. Its seems as though Nadal is poised to smash all kinds of records this year as he has won Monte Carlo and Barcelona for 4th straight year and how is now 103-1 on the his favourite surface since 2005. Nadal was not the only Spaniard to cheer for in this tourney. Nicolas Almagro, perhaps the second best player on dirt reached the quarter-finals and David Ferrer made his second final in spain this year as he progressed to the finals. Stan Warwinka spoiled the party by reaching the semi-finals along with Dennis Gremelmayr of Germany to be the only none Spaniards in the final four. The Barcelona fans were surely happy with the output from their local stars all week.

A potential interesting match in the tournament that was spoiled by Gremelmayr could have been the semi-finals between Nadal and Almagro. Do not be surprised if you see this match as a French Open semi-final in 3 weeks time. Almagro is a rough customer on clay and I put him with Nadal and Federer and the top 3 favorites for the Roland Garros title. Nicolas is the tour leader with match wins on clay this year and has an impressive 24-3 record on the surface which he will try and improve on next week in Rome.

In closing Nadal has 3 more big tournaments to play this year on clay, and I do not think he has any intention of losing in any of them. Do not be surprised if he wins next week in Roma and skips the following week at the Hamburg masters series, which he lost in the finals in last year.

On to the second tournament review of the week in Munich, Germany. The draw held up pretty well in terms of seeded players as number 1 ranked Paul-Henri Mathieu and second seed Fernando Gonzalez progressed deep into the event. Top seed Mathieu was up ended by Italian upstart Simon Bolelli, 7-6 in the third set in the semi-finals and Younes El Aynaoui rounded out the final 4. The 36 year old Morroco native last made an ATP semifinal at the ATP Masters Series Madrid in October 2003. Its quite amazing that Younes is still able to compete at the main tour level. Although his career record in Munich is 13-2, he definitely knew he had a chance of doing some damage at this event. The cold and quick conditions in Germany really do suit his game. I’m sure this will really light a fire under El Aynaoui and he will be looking forward to qualifying for the Masters Series event in Hamburg in two weeks time.

Marat Safin also made it to his 1st quarter-final of the year as he continues to search for his confidence and reclain the form that would put him in the mix with the big boys at the top. Marat is truely a class player and has no business being ranked as low as 84 in the world. I do not think he will be able to recapture the form that he had in 2005, when he won his second grand slam at the Aussie Open, but surely he could get back to top 15 status.

A great week for Bolelli, as the 58th ranked native of Bologna, Italy, played hard all week and progressed to his 1st career final. He will certainly be looking to sustain his form next week in Rome, where the Italian fans will be in full support of their new hero.

Gonzalez claims his second title of the year in Munich, to go along with his victory in Chile in early February. Fernando is still a question mark in terms of consistency as he is up and down with his motivation. As well he has a ton of points to defend next week in Rome as he made it to the finals last. Enjoy this victory Fernando, because your ranking is gonna take a hit next week.

Technorati Tags: David Ferrer, Dennis Gremelmayr, Fernando Gonzalez, Marat Safin, Nicolas Almagro, Paul-Henri Mathieu, Rafael Nadal, Sabadell Atlantico, Simon Bolelli, Stan Warwinka, Younes El Aynaoui

On Sunday, Nadal chalked up another masters series title on clay beating once again the best player in the world, Roger Federer for the 7th time on the dirt. Nadal was down a service break in the 1st set but clawed his way back to take it 7-5. The second set was even more of an up hill battle as R-Fed got up to a 4-0 double break lead, when Nadal decided to take out is scalpel and forceps and slice up Federer and take the set, the match and his 4th straight Monte Carlo title.

Truthfully I do not think Nadal is ever worried on clay. He is so fluid, elegant and confident that any lead by his opponent only means that he has to be on court a little longer for a victory. The young 21 year old Spaniard has won 99% of his last 100 matches on clay, and his office hours look to increase over the next few weeks as he continues to roll through the Barcelona, Rome, Hamburg and The French Open with victory on his note pad.

His office will be full of bruised and battered world class tennis players seeking attention for the pain that Rafa has inflicted on them. The abuse is perhaps more mental than physical as trying to figure out the chess game that is Nadal is quite tricky. His defense is superb, his offense is outstanding and his heart is never broken. Perhaps opponents of the Spaniard can only hope for Rafa to have an off day or week, and pray that the many hours of overtime that have been put in the emergency room are wearing him down.

There is no doubt that this claycourt genius is on the road to another dominating year on the European clay. Nadal will be packing alot of extra socks, bandanna’s and wrist bands as he does not plan on losing much this spring. His trophy case will be looking for a new shelf and his waiting area will be looking for some more seats.  There will be many players needing a cognitive analysis as to why they feel helpless on court against the bull dog that is from Mallorca, Spain.

Technorati Tags: Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer

On to the 1st review of the week and Barcelona, Spain. It seems as though this is the year of 4 peats for Rafa Nadal. The defending champ of pretty much every major claycourt tournament is going for his 4th Barcelona crown and as usual it will not be easy. The Mayorcan will have to contest against fellow top ten players David Ferrer and David Nalbandian and surprise wild card entry James Blake. The event hosts 13 local heroes in the 56 draw, and I have a feeling the hometown crowd will have a Spaniard to cheer for in the final. Nadal is running with a remarkable record on clay, since July 25, 2005-present, Nadal has a 137-13 career record on clay (18 titles). In 2007 he captured five of his six season titles on clay at the AMS Monte-Carlo, Barcelona, AMS Rome, Roland Garros and Stuttgart. If anything is able to top those astounding numbers, Rafa has also won 97 of his last 98 matches on the dirt.

However, don’t be surprised if Nadal doesn’t take home the title in this years Open Sabadell Atlantico. Reasons being that he has just come off of a victory in Monte Carlo and has the Roma Masters to defend next week. Rafa has already voiced his utter displeasure for the ATP and how they have condensed 3 claycourt masters series into a 4 week span. Clearly, if Nadal can win all 3 events as well as Barcelona and Roland Garros, this will have to have been the best year by any player on clay in the history of the game.

The draw breakdown looks favourable for the top players to move through the draw. Nadal has a relatively easy draw with a potential clash with fellow Feliciano Lopez in the third round and either former number one players Juan Carlos Ferrero of Carlos Moya in the quarter-finals. With all this adversity I still like Nadal to climb his way through the draw.

Second seed David Ferrer with Fernando Verdasco and Tommy Robredo standing in his way towards the quarter final. The feisty Spaniard looks good to reach at least the semi-final, with King David Nalbandian a potentially waiting for him. Although this is not a masters series its undoubtedly the 5th biggest claycourt tournament in the world to win.

The second review of the week, takes the tour to the once mighty tennis nation of Germany. Munich will hold the BMW open this year and they were able to attract a relatively decent field. Defending champ Philipp Kohlschreiber will be joined be Paul-Henri Mathieu and Fernando Gonzalez as the top two seeds. As well the flashy Frenchmen Gael Monfils and in form Igor Indreev will be participating. The 32 man tournament does not have the fire power of the Barcelona draw but will still provide many good matches for the Munich fans to chear for. Along with the €59,100 1st prize winners check, the champion also receives a brand new 2008 BMW. Nice life!

On to the draw and not to many compelling matches early on to get excited about. This is truly a very open draw and I believe there will be a surprise winner or finalist this year. Perhaps Juan Martin Del Potro will finally make some noise as he has been off with injury as of late. Marat Safin and Tommy Haas are also entered and will try and gain a few wins as both players are on the downward side of their careers. Look for Philipp Kohlschreiber to make a deep run in hopes of a repeat performance.

Please check back throughout the week as we will have updates from the matches as well as comments. Please check out the links provide below to both tournaments.Enjoy!

Barcelona, Spain www.opensabadellatlantico.com

Munich, Germany www.bmwopen.de

Technorati Tags: Carlos Moya, David Nalbandian, Feliciano Lopez, Fernando Gonzalez, Fernando Verdasco, Gael Monfils, Igor Indreev, James Blake, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Juan Martin Del Potro, Marat Safin, Paul-Henri Mathieu, Philipp Kohlschreiber, Rafael Nadal, Tommy Haas, Tommy Robredo

Rafa looked crisp all week as he took down the likes of Mario Ancic, Juan Carlos Ferrero, David Ferrer, Nikolay Davydenko and Roger Federer all in straight sets, and took home his 4th straight Monte Carlo final. Nadal truly plays a fine brand of clay-court tennis. He never looks like hes out in a set. He was down at multiple occasion against Ferrer, Davydenko and R-Fed and come back strong in each set. Rafa has now won 99 of his last 100 matches on clay!

Nadal will look forward to continuing his dominance on clay next week in his native Barcelona. His draw looks fairly decent and if fatigue does not set in, Nadal looks to 4-peat there as well. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, if Nadal can win Barcelona, Roma, Hamburg and then Roland Garros, will have to be the single greatest year for any player on clay. Especially considering the fact the tour calender is condensed this year because of the Olympics. Good luck and vamos Rafa!

On to Mr. Federer and his great run to the finals. R-Fed looked great all week as his 9 match winning streak came to an end. All in all Roger has to be happy with his Roland Garros preparation. He already has a title in Estoril to go along with a final appearance in Monaco. It seems as though Jose Higueras will keep his job. Federer will be off next week as he arrives in Rome on Wed to start his preparation for the Roma masters which take place from May 5-11, 2008. Im sure Federer is looking forward to making the final, Im not so sure that he is eager to play Nadal again.

The claycourt season is in full swing, with 2 weeks down and 5 weeks to go. As well the top two players are starting to return towards the winning circle which is good for the game and the fans. I look forward to the coming weeks and the continuation of the Federer/Nadal saga.

Technorati Tags: David Ferrer, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Mario Ancic, Nikolay Davydenko, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer

How many times has one watched a point where the ball lands in the middle of the court with no thought process 20 to 30 times? To some this would be a great display of endurance. However tennis is built on the premise of tactics, height, depth, spin and much more.

In our junior academy we emphasize movement of the ball, different styles of play, and different shot making. The idea is teach our juniors rhythm and random shot making together to produce the best possible point. The points are still long lasting and any passer bye is much more inclined to watch a point where the ball travels from side to side, deep to short all ranging with different types of spin. Enjoy this pure complex game!

Conan Lorenzo
Director of Junior Tennis
La Jolla Beach & Tennis Club
2000 Spindrift Dr.
La Jolla CA, 92037

Technorati Tags: Conan Lorenzo, Tennis Coach