The
terre battue tennis courts at Stade Roland Garros
in Paris glow ominously red. French officials explain the
rusty coloring comes from a crushed red brick that is used
to compose the topcoat of clay, but seasoned fans and
players offer a more cryptic explanation: their soil is
saturated with the blood of athletes.
Victory is arduous for French
Open champions. In 1999, veteran Steffi Graf used her
knifing slice backhand like a surgeon’s scalpel to cut the
heart out of a young and cocky Martina Hingis in just under
three hours of drama, tantrums, defiance, and destiny.
Gustavo Kuerten has also left his heart on these courts.
During the most recent of his three championship runs, Guga
celebrated winning the 2001 title by using his racquet to
carve a heart deep into the dirt.
As challenging as taking the
title in Paris may be, however, defeat on the slow red clay
is infinitely more perilous. Pete Sampras, Boris Becker, and
Stefan Edberg – legends amongst legends in the men’s game -
all failed to claim the top prize in Paris, leaving a
glaring hole in their otherwise complete Grand Slam resumes;
Hingis collapsed mentally and emotionally in the 1999 loss
to Graf; and Argentina’s Gabriela Sabatini choked up a 6-1,
5-1 lead in the 1993 women’s quarterfinals, a defeat that
harkened an early end to the career of a woman once touted
as a surefire future champion of this event.
The latest trauma was inflicted
upon another Argentine, Guillermo Coria. Coria was the man
to beat at last year’s tournament, surging to the final and
claiming a two set advantage over compatriot and rival
Gaston Gaudio, only to lose his nerve and the title in five
dramatic, unexpected sets. Guillermo Coria will seek to
avenge that loss alongside 255 of the most able athletes in
the game as the second major tournament of the professional
tennis season, the French Open, gets underway on May 23,
2005.
The Men
One man, 18-year-old Rafael
Nadal, has cast an Eiffel Tower-sized shadow over the
field heading into the 2005 French Open. Nadal has compiled
a 31-2 record on clay this season, claiming five titles in
the process, and dominating the sport’s best dirtballers.
The decided favorite, Nadal’s biggest obstacle is his own
youth and inexperience. He has never competed at Roland
Garros and his best showing in any major tournament came at
this year’s Australian Open, where he advanced to the round
of 16. Should nerves or youth derail Nadal’s charge, men’s
tennis is abundant with challengers all too eager to take
advantage.
Guillermo Coria should
have won this title one year ago and is the safest bet to
eliminate Nadal. Their most recent match was in the final of
the Telecom Italia Masters in Rome, which went to a decisive
tiebreaker in the fifth set. Roger Federer, however,
will be hungry to claim the only Slam title to elude him
thus far. Federer was champion in Hamburg over Coria and is
comfortable enough on clay to beat any challenger. He has
won an astounding 19 consecutive final round matches and
will become more deadly with each victory earned during the
Paris fortnight. Don’t count out Gaston Gaudio too
quickly, either. He is impressive on clay and will be a
proud defending champion.
Men’s tennis is always at the
mercy of the draw and never more so than at the French Open.
Andre Agassi is a former champion and still regularly
grinds men almost half his age into submission. No contender
wants Agassi in their section of the draw, but if damp
weather makes the courts play slowly, Andre could be shown
the exit unceremoniously early. The weather will also be a
major factor for America’s best player, Andy Roddick.
Opportune, dry conditions would help A-Rod stun his critics
and advance into the second week, although it is hard to
imagine Roddick outlasting too many clay court maestros in
the process. Australian Open Champion Marat Safin has
been in miserable form since winning his second career major
in January, but the cache of this title could motivate him
to do well, so long as he manages to escape the first round.
The French Open is beloved and
reviled for its unpredictable results. Players not
contending for the title can spell disaster for one of the
favorites. No one knows that better than Federer. This
year, France’s Richard Gasquet has been brilliant on
the red stuff, handing Roger only his second defeat of the
season in Monte Carlo and playing him close again in
Hamburg; both matches decided by a tiebreaker in the
ultimate set. How Gasquet fares will largely depend on his
ability to manage the pressure of a shamelessly partisan
French crowd’s expectations. Last year, Roger Federer was
eliminated by another man capable an upset or two –
Gustavo Kuerten. Guga is not the player he was before
hip surgery, but the former champ loves Paris and is always
a troublesome opponent at this event.
Another past winner, Juan
Carlos Ferrero of Spain, might be the tournament’s
biggest dark horse. Injuries and a loss of confidence have
seen his ranking plummet, but a return to his favorite
surface has yielded several big wins on clay this season,
including two consecutive victories over Safin. Ferrero has
struggled to follow up the big wins, however, and will need
to up his game to reach the heights of his 2003 campaign.
The Women
Much like Nadal on the men’s
side, Belgium’s Justine Henin-Hardenne will be as
omnipresent at the French Open as The Mona Lisa is at the
Louvre. Henin-Hardenne was champion here in 2003 and the
best player in women’s tennis before illness disrupted her
reign for most of last year. She has a 20-1 record this
season, returning to form on the dirt and showing the
competitive fire necessary to survive all seven rounds at
this tournament.
The most intriguing aspect to
Henin-Hardenne’s success will be her seeding. Despite
currently enjoying a 17-match winning streak that has seen
her collect three consecutive clay court titles, her
injury-stricken ranking does not reflect her clay court
prowess. Ranked outside the Top 8 at No. 11, where Justine
lands in the draw could prove fatal for the unfortunate top
contenders sharing her quadrant.
Australian Open Champion
Serena Williams and soon-to-be No. 1 Maria Sharapova
are nobody’s clay court specialists. At the Telecom
Italia Masters Roma, the last big warm-up event that the
ladies play before the French Open, Williams lost her
opening match and Sharapova was upended in the semifinals.
Nonetheless, Serena and Maria are the most competitive women
in the game today and remain the two players most likely to
challenge Henin-Hardenne for the title. Kim Clijsters
had also returned from the sidelines and was making a
comeback equally impressive to Henin-Hardenne’s, but yet
another injury – this time to her thigh - has put Clijsters’
chances for victory in doubt. If she does play the
tournament and is 100% healthy, Kim leapfrogs the WTA’s
glamour girls and becomes Henin-Hardenne’s most likely rival
for the crown.
The top names in women’s tennis
are not threatened as much by surface specialists. In the
absence of clay-court-only threats, a bevy of big names
comprise the middle-of-the-pack players who – by virtue of
talent alone – will cause trouble, if not win the title.
Former runners-up Venus Williams and Elena
Dementieva will be determined to return to the final,
while U.S. Open champ Svetlana Kuznetsova and her
Russian compatriot Nadia Petrova know how to win on
clay. Watch out, too, for Patty Schnyder and
Conchita Martinez. The talented Swiss player and former
Wimbledon champ are big threats on clay, at least when they
are in the mood to compete.
Reigning titleholder
Anastasia Myskina is in the midst of a dreadful slump.
It was surprising to see her take the title last year and
would be even more surprising to see her survive past the
quarters this year.
Ludicrous though it may seem,
last year’s top two players in the year-end rankings –
Lindsay Davenport and Amelie Mauresmo – are the
real dark horse threats to win at Roland Garros in 2005.
Still clinging to number one, Davenport needs dry
conditions, fast courts, and a healthy distance from the
likes of Henin-Hardenne and Clijsters, but she comes in with
a laissez-faire attitude that could carry her far.
If she makes the final four, anything could happen. (See:
Myskina, Anastasia.) Third-ranked Mauresmo is notorious for
failing on her favorite surface in front of the home crowd.
She has come into this tournament twice before as the
hottest player of the clay-court season only to meekly exit,
having never advanced beyond the quarterfinals. This year,
Mauresmo’s results have been far less impressive, and she
will enter with less pressure on her broad shoulders.
Mauresmo should look to take advantage of a confidence boost
she gained by defending her title at the Italian Open just
last week. If she can peak over the course of the two weeks
in France – using the Parisian crowd and advice from
national hero Yannick Noah to her advantage – Amelie
Mauresmo has the goods to win this title.
C’est La Vie!
Only two players will be added
to the illustrious list of French Open champions at the
conclusion of this year’s tournament. The possibilities are
endless – surprise champions, resurrected veterans, near
impossible comebacks, storybook debuts – and all are a part
of the rich red blooded history that colors these courts and
marks the knees, elbows, and face of a French Open
champion. The rest will fade as so many dreams into dust.
