Spain On Fire To Begin Clay-Court Season

By Ricky Dimon

 

Death, taxes, and Spanish tennis players dominating on clay. Those may be the three certainties of life, and so far 2014 has done nothing to suggest otherwise.

 

The spring clay-court swing kicked off last week in Casablanca and Houston and Spaniards made it a clean sweep of the titles. In fact, that was already a guarantee even after Saturday’s semifinals at both events. Guillermo Garcia-Lopez prevailed at the Grand Prix Hassan II after overcoming Marcel Granollers 5-7, 6-4, 6-3 in an all-Spanish final on Sunday. At the U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championship, Fernando Verdasco got the best of fellow Spaniard Nicolas Almagro 6-3, 7-6(4).

 

It was the first time two Spaniards have won ATP titles during the same week since 2010, when Almagro triumphed in Gstaad and Juan Carlos Ferrero lifted the winner’s trophy in Umag.

 

Spain’s clay-court prowess was put on display again during first-round action at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters on Monday. In fact, Spaniards combined to go an incredible 5-0 on the singles court.

 

Albert Ramos cruised past Jarkko Nieminen 6-2, 7-5, Tommy Robredo made quick work of David Goffin 6-4, 6-1, Roberto Bautista Agut crushed Vasek Pospisil 6-2, 6-2, and Albert Montanes avenged a Casablanca loss to Benoit Paire with a 7-5, 4-6, 6-2 victory. The closest call came for Pablo Andujar, who escaped Igor Sijsling 2-6, 7-5, 7-6(5) in two hours and 35 minutes.

 

Spain will have a tall task to stay undefeated in Monte-Carlo on Tuesday, and that’s an understatement. Verdasco has to make a quick turnaround after Houston and face an in-form Marin Cilic. Granollers is right back in action against Grigor Dimitrov. To cap off a group of seven matches involving Spaniards, Montanes has to go up against No. 2 seed and defending champion Novak Djokovic.

Rafael Nadal’s bid for a ninth Monte-Carlo title will begin on Wednesday against either Gilles Simon on Teymuraz Gabashvili.

 

 PRINTABLE DRAWS

Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters:

• Men’s Singles
• Men’s Doubles
• Qualifying Singles

 

Topics: Atp, Clay Court, Fernando Verdasco, Monte Carlo, Nicolas Almagro, Rafa, Spain, Sports, Tennis

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