Hi Everyone!

Men’s Tour

Vilas gets to keep his record. Roger loses early twice to Canas and restores the Tour’s belief that he is human and that even for him records are not a formality. In many ways these two defeats enhance his greatness because it brings back into focus the enormity of his achievements showing the reality of his discipline and focus to deal with the pressure of consistent success. Sport need spice and flavour and we enter the clay court season with plenty! Roger can be beaten by other than Nadal and how much encouragement has this given to the chasing pack? Djokovic said at least year’s French Open, despite losing easily to Nadal, that he felt he controlled the match - an arrogant claim given the scoreline but one which also signalled his belief and intention to catch and beat the best and sure enough he delivered in Miami. No-one will be dismissing his challenge lightly. Can Murray establish himself as a genuine contender on clay or is it a year too early? Monte Carlo, our home club, will be so interesting as the players who intend to win the French lay down their markers.

Women’s Tour

Serena, Serena, Serena! Amazing – dead and almost buried against a sublime Henin, the merest sniff of nerves from Justine and Serena was able to find a huge backhand down the line pass and seal her comeback in a match that was all but over. This was different from Australia because there was pressure to show tennis that she is seriously back and willing to do the work to become No 1 again as a constant frontrunner on the Tour. Henin has improved her game. Her attitude to coming forward is fantastic and becoming more instinctive. It is also the blueprint for tomorrow’s champions. Paris will be hers again as I cannot see Serena beating her on clay because Serena does not move as well on clay. Can Mauresmo, now with two Grand Slams in the bag, relax and challenge for her home slam? At this point the young girls attempting to bridge the small gap at the top are not quite doing it in the big ones but soon one will make a final – Golovin, Vaidisova, Petrova or Safarova are close, as is Jankovic, but none have found the polish needed to sustain a Grand Slam quest yet. Finally Sharapova, as tough as she is, will have a hangover from the two batterings that Serena has metered out to her and I think an early defeat in Paris is likely. Wimbledon is where I think she can compete with Serena closely again and if they play there she has got to show she has learned and found a way to get into a dogfight with Serena again. 

MCTA

We are in the process of building Ilija’s game on clay to firstly crack the top 100 (currently 124) and secondly qualify for the French Open. Ana Veselinovic is in the midst of a physical block with Jez in the States, something she has not experienced before so we expect a mentality change as well as the physical benefits. Anna Fitzpatrick reached the final in Sunderland 10k and then quarters in Bath to lift her ranking well inside 600. Her aim is to establish some good results at 10k level on clay starting in Croatia next week and also make the back end of a 25k before the summer is out. Oscar is training in Sutton trying to get as much match practice as possible and in the process learn to relax in matches.

ENJOY YOUR TENNIS

David