Is there anyone who can beat Rafael Nadal on clay? After last week in Monte Carlo the kid follows up by winning in Barcelona today to up his current clay win streak to 47 straight.

More importantly, he’s placed himself head and shoulders above anyone else on the surface, Sir Roger Federer included.

The Barcelona win was nearly a foregone conclusion – though he did have to overcome a set and 4-1 deficit to Niemenin – but it was his Monte Carlo performance that sent the message to the rest of the tennis world that he is still the No. 1 man on dirt. Just ask Roger.

Nothing says clay season more to me than two words: Mardy Fish. That’s right, Mardy Fish.

As proof, Mardy backed me up and went out today and won his first title in a few years beating up on Jurgen Melzer on the red clay in Houston.

Time for me to blow a little more hot air. Just kidding of course, or maybe I’m not.

Unfortunately I’m still a bit hung up on the player participation issue I have, which if you haven’t read my prior posts revolves around the fact that top players are playing roughly 25% of their scheduled events (i.e., Roger Federer plays roughly 25% of the events on the circuit). Point being, that’s much less than the stars of others sports play…

Despite all the happy-happy concerning the U.S. Davis Cup squad advancing to the semifinals, there are some disconcerting signs that men’s tennis in the U.S. is in the self-fulfilling doledrums.

The U.S. hasn’t won a Davis Cup title since 1995 for a reason — the Americans can’t field two singles players who can compete at a high level on clay — and these days you’re more than likely to run into a Spain or Argentina in the later rounds, or in the American’s case, the Russians who are well acquainted with what’s the worst surface for Andy Roddick and James Blake.

Okay…So clearly many of you are not seeing eye-to-eye with me on my position that the top female players on the WTA should be ashamed of themselves for only playing 41% of the tournaments at best. Thanks for the comments.

Folks…I get that Lindsay Davenport cannot play all 63 WTA events, or that she could even play half of them for a number of reasons. But my point is that tennis is a sport (the only sport i still wonder??) in which its best players are unable to play a full schedule and play less than half of the tournaments, which in most cases is less than 25%.

Holy Cow, you couldn’t pay me to come to this tourna…wait, I guess Tennis-X did. Sitting courtside at the “featured” night match between virtual unknown No. 15 seed Lucie Safarova and American journeywoman Jill Craybas, you have to ask — why? Was No. 1 seed Nadia Petrova not feature-match material earlier in the day? How […]

Anyone who watched the NCAA final last night in which the Florida Gators pounded the UCLA Bruins has to agree that Joakim Noah is a freak. Why? The kid is, according to announces, seven feet tall and can run and jump like a gazelle.

Now imagine in tennis a guy taller than Dr. Ivo Karlovic who can run and jump as well as say James Blake. Or just imagine James Blake as a seven footer! Ha.

Pretty incredible story really when you think about is that Yannick Noah’s kid, Joakim, is playing today – in just an hour – in the NCAA Basketball Final Four. Noah and his Florida Gators are favored to win the title outright and in just under an hour will be playing the underdog George Mason Patriots.

What’s so remarkable about Noah is that a year ago as a freshman at Florida he was basically sitting on the bench. Now he’s being touted among the game’s best players and a would-be Top 5 NBA draft according to some “experts.”