More Almagro on Clay

Last week you may remember here on Tennis Talk, I gave a shout out to Spain’s Nicolas Almagro, stating that he is the player to watch this season on clay.  Needless to say he’s plowing down the competition and rolling through the Valencia draw – just upset #2 seed Juan Monaco today for spot in the semi-finals.  I’ll say it again, this guy can PLAY on the dirt! 

Almagro’s clay court run reminds me of Argentina’s Guillermo Coria’s in 2004.  Coria was nearly unbeatable on clay, ultimately losing to Gaston Gaudio in a heart breaking French Open final, in which he held two match points, but fell 0-6, 3-6, 6-4, 6-1, 8-6.  During that event, Coria was rolling through names such as Tim Henman and Carlos Moya….well step aside, because Almagro is staging a similar scenario in 2008.  Of course there have been other dominant clay court players, such as Thomas Muster and Rafael Nadal, but the comparison to Coria comes due to the fact that they both came out of nowhere, and weren’t household names, even on the tennis tour. 

Nicolas proved that he’s for real this season when he ended David Nalbandian’s 10 match winning streak en route to the 2008 Acapulco clay court title.  Almagro has the best clay court record on the ATP Tour right now, and once again, watch out for the Spaniard to be a major dark horse at Roland Garros; he’s already in good position to defend his Valencia crown.