By Mike McIntyre

The clay court season will have its work cut out for it in terms of matching the fast paced start to the 2012 season on the ATP World Tour.

We are just over three months into the grueling professional tennis schedule but have already witnessed some outstanding performances and intriguing story lines. 

World number one Novak Djokovic has won the first Grand Slam of the year and seems prepared to continue the brilliance we saw from a year ago.

Roger Federer has improved upon his end to 2011 and compiled a 44-3 record since the U.S. Open in September. Suddenly being thirty doesn’t seem so bad does it?

John Isner seems poised to carry the weight of American tennis hopes after nearly ten years of dominance from Andy Roddick.

Andy Murray is still a mystery wrapped in all the talent one could hope for yet waiting for his first Grand Slam moment that many thought would have happened by now. Perhaps teaming with former eight time major champ Ivan Lendl will see him over that barrier.

Rafael Nadal’s season is already surrounded by question marks as his knees are once again threatening to stall the great heights he is capable of attaining. Will we see the king of clay this spring?

The shift in surface will force everyone to adjust and soon we'll see if the players above can continue to dominate the headlines in the tennis world.

Here's a look at the first two clay court tournaments to kick-off the next portion of the ATP season.

Gran Prix Hassan II: Casablanca, Morocco

This level 250 event has Pablo Andujar as its defending champion from a year ago. With plenty of clay court events coming up over the next two months, many players see no hurry to dive into the field, which explains why this one is certainly weaker than what we will witness in the weeks to come.

The number one seed is an under-whelming one with Florian Mayer from Germany in the pole position. Mayer was never able to reach the same heights as Nicolas Kiefer and Tommy Haas were able to attain and he therefore clearly was not the second coming of Boris Becker.

Unseeded Albert Montanes and Guillermo Garcia Lopez probably represent the strongest clay court opponents in this half of the draw, and I'd bank on one of them making it to the finals rather than Mayer.

In the bottom half, second seeded Alexandr Dolgopolov might state that clay is his favorite surface, but over the previous year where he has risen into the top thirty in the world, I've seen little evidence that he should be feared on the red dirt. Still, with a field this frail I'd be surprised if he didn't have a good run.

The previously mentioned Andujar is the third seed and will surely be confident he can win a few once more at this venue. Ranked 39th in the world, Andujar lost five of his first six matches of the year, but recently took a set off Novak Djokovic on hard courts in Indian Wells before falling 6-0, 6-7(5), 6-2 in their fourth round encounter.

U.S. Men's Clay Court Championship: Houston, Texas

Why anyone would waste their time playing on the har-tru courts in Houston has always been beyond me, yet there is decent field vying for the $79,000 winners check.

Seeded first is Mardy Fish who did not participate in this weekend's Davis Cup victory over France due to exhaustion. I wouldn't bet for Fish to go too far due to the surface here. He gets a first round bye which also likely won't do him much good when he potentially faces Daniel Gimeno-Traver, who is a decent clay court player.

Juan Monaco is seeded fourth and is my pick to navigate his way through to the finals. Monaco has had a good run lately on hard courts where he surprisingly made it to the semi-finals of Miami.

The bottom half of the draw is fairly wide open. Look for the confident John Isner to continue to build on his break-out season. Isner has made his first ATP Masters final in Indian Wells and has performed quite well on clay as well, with huge Davis Cup victories over Roger Federer and the Swiss as well as Jo Wilfried-Tsonga and the French.

 Feliciano Lopez is seeded third but has been his usual inconsistent self of late, while big-serving Ivo Karlovic is always a threat even on a slower surface like this one.

Fans of American veteran James Blake might want to check him out in what I'm sure will be his last season on the pro tour. Blake is currently ranked 74th in the world but has been plagued by injuries for the past few seasons and I can't see him continuing to trudge along for much longer in this state. He opens against sixth seeded Carlos Berlocq.

After this week, things will heat up with the Monte Carlo Masters 1000 event that will surely draw all the big names back into the mix.

Comments

Hi Mike

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this is a great blog, thank you for sharing!

Hi,

It's good sometimes to go back to see what was written about a particular event we have just witnessed.
This may be the case of Nadal's clay season, which is over.
And it has been really good for him, getting the most wished title, in Paris, and breaking a record as 7 French Opens winner.
There is something interesting within this article.
It's not the first time I read about Nadal's legs problems.
I really think this is not such a problem. Probably because of the way he cares of his legs, the way he trains, etc...I think he is (still) really capable of playing his higuest tennis.
It has always amazed me how a tennis player can keep performing as regularly well as he does. It looks to me like a real psychological feat. I don't really think Nadal (or any other tennis player) could be keeping such a good level if they were seriously injured.
And yes, as you said, both Nadal and Djokovic are still able to dominate the headlines!, and probably for a long time (I hope so).