Review for the week of May 5-11, 2008, Masters Series Roma, Italy

The second masters series on clay this week provided many shocking results. Upsets were clearly the order of play. Frustrated Spaniard Rafa Nadal went out in his opening match to countrymen Juan Carlos Ferrero. The Mayorcan native looked out of sorts from the onset of the match, and a severe blister that developed last week in Barcelona hampered Rafa’s movement throughout the second round encounter. Rafa looks to be in trouble with the Hamburg masters coming up next week.

The implications of Nadals loss will be very evident on his ranking, as he will lose 465 points because he was the defending champ in Roma. As well because Roger Federer progressed deep in the tournament the point gap is even more widened. Nadal stands to drop another 555 points behind Federer in his quest for the number one ranking. Perhaps now Rafa’s main concern should be fighting off number three ranked Novak Djokovic as the Serbian in making a strong case for the number 2 spot.

No result can ever be greater than a Nadal loss on clay, but this years edition of the Roma masters also had some pleasant surprises. Americans Andy Roddick and James Blake moved through the draw in convincing fashion and progressed to the semi and quarter-finals respectively. This will surely boost the confidence level of both Blake and Roddick as they look to improve on their dismal French Open records.

The play of relatively unknown Stanislas Wawrinka has been outstanding as of late. The number two ranked Swiss has made the semi and finals of his last two events and as a result in will move into the top 10 for the first time. Its not like Switzerland does not have enough to cheer about already, as the country now looks to have two super stars to follow.

TheATPblog.com’s player for the month of May, Nicolas Almagro also had a great tournament. He progressed to the quarter-finals and improved on his already impressive clay court record. As I’ve mentioned in the past Almagro will be a rough customer to deal with at the French this year. If can seize the moment, sky is the limit for this Spaniard.

Roger Federer also had good tournament results this week. I can not say he had great week as he did not win the title. At this stage and level that R-Fed is at, every week comes with great expectations and some sort of hardware has to be taken home. Frankly, Federer losing to the aging none clay court player Radek Stepanek in the quarter-finals is a bad loss.

Great result for Djokovic as he claimed his 1st masters series title on clay. I would not put him as a favourite just yet for the French Open crown as his road to the title in Roma included 2 retirements and a pretty easy draw. I still put Federer and Nadal ahead of Djokovic in terms of French Open favorites.

On a closing note the ATP and masters series organizers need to serious look at how harmful the calender is for players. As a result of the condensed calender, Roma had retirements in 5 matches as players are starting to break down because they are forced to play back to back weeks. Having two retirements in the semi-finals was disappointing for everyone involved in the tournament and seriously needs to be looked into.

Technorati Tags: Andy Roddick, James Blake, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Nicolas Almagro, Novak Djokovic, Radek Stepanek, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Stanislas Wawrinka