US Open Tennis 2011: Nicolas Almagro's 1st-Round Loss Proves He's Overrated

Sometimes world rankings really don’t matter much in Grand Slam tournaments.

Nicolas Almagro of Spain entered the 2011 US Open as the 10th-ranked player in the world. He is one of the best clay-court performers in men’s tennis and needed a strong performance at Flushing Meadows to prove he was not a one-trick pony.

Instead, he was ousted in straight sets by wild-card Julien Benneteau of France, 2-6, 4-6, 3-6, in a crisp two hours.

In other words, it wasn’t even close.

Too many unforced errors and not capitalizing on break points (1-for-13) were the two main culprits for the loss, the same sort of errors that have doomed Almaro in the past.

If anything, he beat himself with far too many mistakes both mentally and physically. He simply wasn’t the same player the world got accustomed to seeing in 2011.

The 81st-ranked Benneteau needed a huge performance at last week’s Winston Salem Open just to qualify for a spot in the US Open.

Wednesday’s match was won on the baseline, where Almagro simply couldn’t keep up. His struggles on the hard-court surface were painfully clear, as he seemed slow and timid chasing after the ball.

The loss is a sour way to end the Grand Slam season for Almagro. The Spaniard had been playing some of the best tennis of his life, breaking the top-10 barrier for the first time in his career. He had won 45 of 62 matches he played in this season and had three titles.

Now he’s left wondering what could have been.

The 26-year-old can look back on 2011 and know that he’s reached the prime of his career. Plenty of great tennis remains, but losing this early and by such a wide margin is going to sting.

We’ll see if he uses this as motivation or if his confidence has now taken a huge hit moving forward.