ATP Backspin 2Q Clay Court Awards

Hmmm, let's see. Who could possibly be the top player during this year's clay court season? Well, if you MUST have a teeny tiny little hint, he took a big bite out of everyone (and everything) he faced... including Roger Federer.



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**2006 ATP CLAY COURT AWARDS**

[April-to-Roland Garros]

==PLAYERS OF THE QUARTER==
1.Rafael Nadal...who knows how long he'll be able to keep up this kind of physical play (think Jim Courier) on clay (think Gustavo Kuerten), but how can you not enjoy it while it lasts?
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2.Roger Federer

...as great as he is (and will be, probably for the rest of this season), Roger Dodger's legacy will be endangered if he can't find a way to beat Rafa. It's not just clay, either. He's 1-2 against him on hard courts, too, and was two sets down and two points from a straight sets defeat the one time he DID beaten Nadal.
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3.Tommy Robredo...he's forever in the Big Two's debt for skipping Hamburg after their massive Rome face-off.
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4.David Nalbandian...so much for that (former) winning career record vs. Federer, Nalbandian's RG semifinal opponent, who'll probably never let him forget the fact that he beat him in that Masters Cup final last year. Still, Nalbandian's made the SF in both slams so far this season.
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5.Ivan Ljubicic...finally, he came through in a slam, reaching his first semifinal at Roland Garros. It probably doesn't even begin to wash the bad taste out of his mouth from Croatia's QF defeat in Davis Cup, though.

OTHERS...
Nikolay Davydenko
Jonas Bjorkman & Max Mirnyi
Mark Knowles & Daniel Nestor

==RISERS==
1.Tommy Robredo
2.Mario Ancic
3.Radek Stepanek
4.Fernando Gonzalez
5.Nicolas Almagro
6.Julien Benneteau
7.Paul-Henri Mathieu
8.Jurgen Melzer
9.Jose Acasuso
10.Olivier Rochus
HM-Jarkko Nieminen

==SURPRISES==
1.Martin Vassalo Arguello
2.Mardy Fish
3.Kristof Vliegen
4.Luis Horna
5.James Blake (on clay)
6.Lleyton Hewitt (at Roland Garros)
7.Bjorn Phau
8.Ruben Ramirez-Hidalgo
9.Lukas Dlouhy
10.Philip Bester
HM-Ivo Karlovic

==VETERANS==
1t.Jonas Bjorkman & Max Mirnyi
1t.Mark Knowles & Daniel Nestor
3.Daniele Bracciali
4.Juan Ignacio Chela (Davis Cup)
5.Andrei Pavel
6.Alberto Martin
7.Jiri Novak
8.Paul Hanley
9.Albert Portas
10.Paul Goldstein
HM-Fabrice Santoro

==FRESH FACES==
1.Gael Monfils
2.Novak Djokovic
3.Stanislas Wawrinka
4.Gilles Simon
5.Chris Guccione
6.Alexander Waske
7.Andreas Seppi
8.Juan Martin Del Potro
9.Evgeny Korolev
10.Martin Klizan
HM-Philip Bester

==DOWN==
1.Guillermo Coria
2.Richard Gasquet (in 5th sets at RG)
3.Roger Federer (vs. you-know-who)
HM-Andy Roddick (in a slam, again)


==MATCH OF THE CLAY SEASON==
Rome Final - Nadal d. Federer
...6-7(0)/7-6(5)/6-4/2-6/7-6(5). This 6th meeting allowed Nadal to tie Guillermo Vilas' 53-match clay streak, but it was the rest of the story that made it special (and the best Federer-Nadal match since #2, the Federer comeback in Miami), as Rafa saved two match points and overcame Federer's 5-3 lead in the final set TB in the 5:05 match. This is the one that made the eventual Roland Garros meeting the "dream final" everyone was hoping to see.

==BEST PERFORMANCE==
Who else? Nadal, for his entire '06 clay court run that ran his streak to 60 matches and included three wins over Federer in Monte Carlo, Rome and Paris.

==BREAKOUTS==
1.Ivan Ljubicic at RG (though he didn't beat any major names)
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2.Tommy Robredo in Hamburg (although Roger & Rafa sat out)
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3.Chris Guccione in Davis Cup for Australia (though he's yet to make a mark anywhere else, so far)


==WINNING BY EMERGING FROM THE PACK==
Nicolas Almagro won the Valencia title, the first of his ATP career, after having to qualify for the main draw

==WINNING BY CLIMBING OFF THE SCRAP HEAP==
Mardy Fish won in Houston, claiming his first title since 2003

==WINNING (and picking up) ROGER & RAFA'S SCRAPS==
Tommy Robredo won his first Masters title in Hamburg when the Big Two didn't show up (sort of like Tomas Berdych at the Masters event in Paris last year). Sorry to nit-pick, Tommy.

==BEST COMEBACK==
Davis Cup QF (CHILE/USA) - Fernando Gonzalez d. James Blake
...Gonzalez overcame a two-set hole, and won a 10-8 5th set. (Yeah, I know this one was played on grass... but it happened in April.)

==WHAT A DIFFERENCE A YEAR MAKES==
In 2005, Croatia won the Davis Cup title. In 2006, the team went down to Argentina in the quarterfinals.

==ATP SMACKDOWN!==
Mario Ancic and Paul Capdeville got into a shoving match at the net (the umpire gratefully stepped between them... err, on second thought, it'd been even more fun if he HADN'T, huh?) after their 2nd Round match at Roland Garros

==NOAH, THE NEXT GENERATION?==
Gael Monfils seemed to come of age at this year's Roland Garros. Could the now 23-year drought of French men's RG champs be close to coming to an end? (Though, Monfils might need to "pull a Robredo" to do it any time soon.)

==SOMETHING TO KEEP HANDY, AND TASTY TOO==
Rafael Nadal stopped a Roland Garros match to call a trainer, claiming he had a piece of banana stuck in his throat. Hmmm, not a bad excuse for taking a well-timed time-out during a pressure-filled match... too bad for the players that might need it that Rafa "stole" it before any of them could use it. Nadal, of course, hasn't had any "real" problems swallowing in a pressure-filled match since he blew that two-set lead to Federer in Miami last year.


**FEDERER vs. NADAL**
2004 Miami 3r (HC) - Nadal 6-3/6-3
2005 Miami F (HC) - Federer 2-6/6-7/7-6/6-3/6-1
2005 RG SF (CC) - Nadal 6-3/4-6/6-4/6-3
2006 Dubai F (HC) - Nadal 2-6/6-4/6-4
2006 M.Carlo F (CC) - Nadal 6-2/6-7/6-3/7-6
2006 Rome F (CC) - Nadal 6-7/7-6/6-4/2-6/7-6
2006 RG F (CC) - Nadal 1-6/6-1/6-4/7-6

==BEST REASON TO WISH FOR A FEDEDER WIN OVER NADAL (for Backspin)==
"Federisms" and "More Federisms" will have a bit more relevance. Good luck at SW19 and New York, Roger... the timing isn't yet right for "Still More Federerisms."

==WHAT HAVE YOU DONE FOR ME LATELY... and by that I mean "yesterday"==
Andy Murray fired coach Mark Petchey months after winning his first career title in San Jose. Since then, his results have dipped considerably (he lost in his first grass match of the season this week, too). Maybe this Andy should have talked to the other Andy about what's happened to his career since he fired Brad Gilbert.

==SPEAKING OF..."
Andy Roddick's quarter was typically up and down. He helped push the Americans through the Davis Cup quarters, and got some revenge for Melbourne by knocking off Marcos Baghdatis in Rome. At Roland Garros, though, his injured ankle helped precipitate yet another 1st Round exit in a slam (this one by retirement).

==ADDING FUEL TO THE FIRE==
Federer accused Toni Nadal, Rafa's uncle, of blatantly (and illegally) coaching his nephew from the stands. If only he could work up that ire in a MATCH against his one true rival in the sport.

==ONE RECORD THAT NADAL DIDN'T BREAK==
Nadal's 16th career title as a teenager tied Bjorn Borg's record, but it won't be broken since he turned 20 about a week before he won his second Roland Garros title.

**TITLES AS A TEENAGER**
16...Bjorn Borg
16...Rafael Nadal
13...Mats Wilander
12...Boris Becker
10...Andre Agassi

==SAY WHAT?==
The top four men's seeds uncharactistically reached the semis at RG. (What, no Puerta or Verkerk? Who'll be the answers to trivia questions about this year's tournament?)

==DREAM FINAL, NIGHTMARE RESULT (for Roger)==
We got Federer vs. Nadal in Paris, but Federer got a very embarrassing stat that got even more nightmarish. He's now 1-6 in career match-ups with Nadal, but his 2006 results are even more striking: he's 44-0 (before the grass season) against the rest of the ATP Tour, but 0-4 against Nadal. Talk about an elephant in the middle of the room.


All for now.

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COMING SOON: 2006 ATP Grass Court Awards, and the 2Q Backspin Quiz (with a focus on Federer/Nadal)

Read more!