2010 was a good year for Jurgen Melzer.  A contemporary of Roger Federer, Melzer had stuck in the top 40 for many years, but when it came to Slams, Melzer just didn’t do well.  Melzer played his first Slam in 2000, but until 2010, Melzer had never even made it to the fourth round of any Slam, perhaps the worst performance of any top 40 player.

2010 saw Melzer reach the semis of the French Open and come as close as anyone to taking a set off Nadal in his run to the French Open.  2010 saw Melzer rose to top ten in that year, inspired by his semifinal run.

Melzer’s ranking had dropped to 38, and he entered the tournament unseeded.  He needed three tiebreaks to win the first three rounds, and upset top seed John Isner, number 3 seed, Radek Stepanek, in the semis, and last year’s finalist, Milos Raonic, in the finals.  Melzer was able to break in the first set, but the second set went to a tiebreak which Melzer won.  Raonic seemed a bit desperate, slapping two forehands out, rather than let the point play out.

Melzer credited his team with getting his game back to top notch play and that he could celebrate with a tournament win.

Marseille

When there was speculation about who might make it to the top four, the name, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga came up. primarily due to two wins over Roger Federer.  Forget the fact that Tsonga struggled to beat the remaining top 3 (Djokovic, Murray, and Nadal), and forget that there were some top players that were still on the comeback trail, most notably, Juan Martin del Potro.

del Potro had to fight off Frenchman to win the tournament, first Tsonga in the semifinals, which he did in three sets, and then Michael Llodra, who he beat in straight sets in the finals.  Llodra has been in the finals before.  In 2010, he won the title.  In 2009, he was runner up to Tsonga.

Buenos Aires

If it weren’t for Rafael Nadal, perhaps David Ferrer would be the king of clay.  Though he’s never come particularly close to winning Roland Garros, he does his best to beat players ranked below him.  Ferrer has worked his way to the top top by rarely losing to anyone below him.  And it happened again when he played Nicolas Almagro whom he beat in three sets.