Do Rome Master Winners do well at French Open Tennis in Paris
Tennis is not a game where the outcome of a grand slam can be predicted, but in the recent past, it has been observed that if a certain player, who plays better on one surface than the rest, wins a tournament ahead of a Grand Slam, he gets so pressurized to keep up the good work that at times he doesn’t even win the big event that precedes their comparatively lesser win.
The fans of the game, who keenly favour clay court over grass, hard and carpet courts, know the importance of French Open Tennis, that is played each year in Paris. It has been observed that whoever wins the Rome Masters, is not guaranteed the French Open, which is played on similar court, and similar conditions. Apart from Rafael Nadal who has managed to win Rome Masters five times, and the French Open on 4 consecutive occasions, no other player has managed to do so since the turn of the millennium.
If we take a look at the winners of Rome Masters in 2001, we will observe that Spaniard Juan Carlos Ferrero won the event by defeating Gustavo Keurten, who went onto clinch the French Open, defeating another Spaniard Àlex Corretja. The next year, American Andre Agassi defeated Tommy Haas of Germany to win at Rome but both the players were nowhere in the French Open finals, which was in turn won by Spain’s Albert Costa, defeating compatriot Jaun Carlos Ferrero. In 2003, an unknown Spaniard Félix Mantilla stunned Roger Federer to take the Rome event, yet it was the finalist of the past year who managed to win the French Open, Jaun Carlos Ferrero, defeating Martin Verkerk of the Netherlands.
It took just 3 sets for Carlos Moya of Spain, French Open champion in 1998, to beat Argentinean David Nalbandian in the final of the Rome Masters in 2004, but the French Open went to Nalbandian’s countryman Gastón Gaudio who beat compatriot Guillermo Coria in a five set thriller. The year 2005 saw the arrival of another Spaniard Rafael Nadal who dawned on clay court as if he was meant to rule it, winning the Rome Masters that year, defeating last year’s French Open finalist Guillermo Coria. He went on to write his way into record books by winning the French Open the same year, defeating another Argentinean, Mariano Puerta,
Nadal and his nemesis Roger Federer then met in the final of both the tournaments in 2006, where Nadal took away the trophy, but not after Federer gave him a tough time. In 2007, Nadal beat Chile’s Fernando Gonzalez in Rome, and downed Federer in Paris, while the next year it was Serbian Novak Djokovic’s chance to take the cup, defeating Federer’s doubles partner Stanislas Wawrinka in Rome. It was expected that Nadal would not win the French Open due to his loss in Rome, but he came back strongly to take his fourth consecutive French Open, defeating Federer for the third time in Paris.
While Rafael Nadal managed to reclaim his Rome Masters title in 2009, defeating Novak Djokovic, Federer had the last laugh as he managed to beat Robin Soderling in the final of the French Open, to take home the only title that eluded him. Nadal failed to even qualify for the event, and since had been on the sidelines. He managed to stage a successful comeback, winning back to back titles in Monte Carlo and Rome (and skipping the event in Barcelona), and gearing up to dethrone Roger Federer as the French Open champion. But if statistics are to be believed, lady luck may not be on Nadal’s side who has been out of favour for sometime now.
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