It is a bit weird. The Spanish game seems better suited to clay than other surfaces. Rafael Nadal, David Ferrer, Fernando Verdasco, Juan Carlos Ferrero. Sure, many of these players can play other surfaces, but clay seems to be very Spanish. This is backed up by recent Spanish winners of the French Open. Aside from Nadal, the number of Spaniards that have won in the last 20 years include: Juan Carlos Ferrero, Albert Costa, Sergi Bruguera, and Carlos Moya. No Frenchman has even appeared in the finals since 1988 and no one has won since 1983.
The French game, with its flair, perhaps most epitomized by Henri Leconte or Yannick Noah seems better suited to faster surfaces. One sees evidence of this in the last Davis Cup match between Spain and France. France picked a fast indoor court, and they beat Spain for the first time in many a decade.
Today, at the US Open, the French did quite well. Michael Llodra pulled off the big upset, beating Tomas Berdych in straight sets. Berdych was a bit unlucky. Llodra was the highest ranked player to not receive a seeding just behind 32nd seed, Lleyton Hewitt. He plays a lefty serve-and-volley style that seems almost quaint, but is so rarely seen that it gives players trouble.
Gael Monfils, the highest ranked Frenchman in the tournament (Tsonga is still injured), made short work of Igor Andreev in straight sets. Finally, Gilles Simon beat Donald Young in straight sets.
One surprise win is young Ryan Harrison upsetting the Ivan Ljubicic: 6-3, 6-7 (4), 6-3, 6-4. Ljubicic is the 15th seed, but he hasn’t played particularly well after winning Indian Wells, his first Masters 1000 win ever. Recently, he lost to the resurgent David Nalbandian, a player he had actually played well against.
Mikhail Youzhny, the 12 seed, had an easy straight sets win over Andrey Golubev. Dustin Brown, from Jamaica, beat Ruben Ramirez-Hidalgo of Spain 6-4, 7-6 (6), 7-5. This is one of those matches a low ranked player loves, i.e., playing someone similarly ranked.
Sergiy Stakhovsky, fresh off his win in New Haven, took four sets to be Australian, Peter Luczak: 6-7 (8), 7-5, 6-4, 6-2.
Jack Sock, a top American junior, did perhaps as well as he could, taking a set off of Swiss #3, Marco Chiudinelli, but ultimately lost: 6-1, 6-4, 1-6, 6-1.
Nicolas Almagro had a tough four setter over Potito Starace of Italy: 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, 7-6 (5).
Sam Querrey won his first round in four sets: 6-3, 4-6, 7-5, 6-4. He beat wildcard and NCAA champ, Bradley Klahn.
Andy Murray has a straightforward win over Lukas Lacko: 6-3, 6-2, 6-2.
Tonight, Andy Roddick plays the late match. His second round opponent is Janko Tipsarevic.
