French Fuzz

Other than Federer getting knocked out before the semis of a major for the first time in the last 24 tries, this French Open hasn’t captured many headlines.

The Americans have kept with the pace of sucking on the dirt. As a result, the homeland networks, papers and blogosphere don’t seem to care much either. And why should they? The top American player, Andy Roddick, didn’t even bother playing a tournament on clay before the French.

As a fan, that’s embarrassing. Can you imagine Agassi doing that? That’d be like Tiger and Phil strolling up to Augusta on Thursday morning and expecting to be ready to compete. Sure he practiced on clay, but to not play one warm-up event on the surface of your next major is giving up before you start. I guess if given the chance, I might forget the trip to the Madrid warm-up and vacation with Brooklyn at an exotic location for a photo shoot too. I think we need another American talent.

As far as the women’s side goes, I personally despise women’s tennis – having played the sport myself – and I can’t evn pronounce the name of either player in the finals earlier today so I won’t even bother with a fake analysis of their draw. But congratulations Schiavone… (sp?).

Concerning the real tournament, or as Pam Shriver calls is the men’s side, I like everyone else was dying for a Fed-Nadal battle royale. But the match-up we have on our hands is a close second.

The Players:

Rafa Nadal

The bull, the competitor, the man, the muscle. We all know him and should try our best to appreciate his passion for tennis, competing and pursuit of excellence. He was banged up for the better part of the past year until early Spring, but has seemingly recovered and been on a tear since. Having won all 3 masters on clay leading up to the French (Monte Carlo, Rome, and Madrid) he seems hungrier than ever to regain his title.

The pressure is mounting considering it has been more than a year since Nadal has hoisted a Grand Slam trophy and this is the first finals he will have played since having struggled with injury. We will see if the old Nadal is truly back. He has breezed through the draw, having not dropped a set, but has shown signs of nerves when he let Jurgen Melzer break him while serving for the match and force a 3rd set tiebreak.

And the kicker?

Nadal’s opponent is the only player who has ever beaten Nadal at Roland Garros and the same man who took out Federer in the quarters.

Robin Soderling

Sodering has played fair since losing to Federer in last year’s final at Roland Garros. He had the unfortunate luck of meeting Roger at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open as well, and spent the remainder of the year floundering in mediocrity.

He has shown up again this year at the French and presents Nadal with a uniquely difficult match-up. Not only because he is the one man to defeat him in Paris, but because even on the clay, he manages to rifle forehands and change direction with his backhand in an offensive manner that others have failed to do against Nadal.

Prediction

Going into last year’s match-up of Nadal and Soderling, I would have bet my car on Nadal. He had never lost in Paris and had defeated Soderling 6-1, 6-0 the week before. In a situation like this, the future result is not always a function of past results. As well as Soderling has played and as much pressure as Rafa may have on him, the Spaniard is too hungry and just too damn good on the dirt.

Nadal takes it: 6-4, 7-5, 6-2. Heard it here first.

-rew