French Open Update – Sad US Men, Rafa Out, Wide Open for Djoker

If you’d like to understand the sad state of American’s men’s tennis lately, see if you can watch a replay of the match today at the French Open between American Jack Sock and Spaniard Albert Ramos-Vinolas. Sock, the 23rd seed, was bounced by Ramos-Vinolas, ranked 55th in the world, in 5 sets.  Now you may be thinking that the Spaniard is one of these clay court specialists so the result is not that surprising; and, yes, clay is his best surface by far, but it would be a reach to call him a specialist – he had not gotten beyond the first round at the French since 2011. Sock has a booming first serve and wicked forehand from which he can hit winners from anywhere on the court, but the slow clay surface makes those outright forehand winners harder to hit. However, it was Sock’s inability to produce anything off the backhand side except a prodigious amount of errors that was the key to his loss. And give credit to Ramos-Vinolas who kept pounding away at that wing, while keeping Sock off balance with an occasional rip to his forehand.

Now I don’t mean to pick on Jack Sock and, admittedly, he was not on his game today, even on the forehand side.  But the preponderance of hard courts here in the United States makes it easier for guys like Sock and John Isner to dominate in juniors because they have a big serve and one other huge weapon. That success, however, comes at the expense of developing a true all around game, which is what you need to not only win on clay but to make it into the top ten in the world, something no American man has done since Mardy Fish(!) in 2011. Now, there is a crop of good junior talent coming of age but it remains to be seen if they have the all-around game necessary to win in the pros. Or will they have that one glaring deficiency, like Sock’s backhand, that continually gets exploited and keeps them from making it to the top.  Unfortunately, that has been the pattern for good American juniors for quite a while.

In other news, Rafa Nadal had to withdraw from the tournament with a wrist injury.  You really have to wonder if Rafa’s best days are behind him with the physical brand of tennis that he plays finally taking a toll on his body. Every time he seems to be on his way back to form, he is grounded by another physical breakdown. So, with Nadal and Federer out, only Andy Murray is left out of the Big Four to challenge Novak Djokovich for the title.  But Murray has looked eminently beatable going 5 sets in each of his first two rounds. Stan “the Man” Wawrinka, who defeated Novak in the final last year also has looked a little shaky.  Clearly, this is the best opportunity for the Djoker to win the French and complete his career Grand Slam. And, if he does, he will be well set up to win the calendar Grand Slam, something no man has done since Rod Laver in 1969, as he will be the prohibitive favorite at Wimbledon and the US Open later this year. But this is the French Open and anything can happen – we’ve seen stranger things before.