Players to bid for the 2012 Australian Open; Part Two: Nicolas Almagro - Tennis Special
Continuing our search for the possible Australian Open titlist is the rising star, Nicolas Almagro. The Australian Open is the first of the four Grand Slam event taking place at the hard courts at Melbourne Park, Australia, with A$ 26 million prize money
for the contestants.
The rising Spaniard – Nicolas Almagro
Spanish number three, Almagro started off his 2011 journey standing at the world number 15 in the South African Airways ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) World Tour Rankings and reached the semis of the first tournament he entered, Heineken Open
in Auckland, New Zealand (crashed out by the sixth seed David Nalbandian).
The Murcia native cruised into the Australian Open last year and reached the fourth round before exiting by the eventually champion, Novak Djokovic. After the hard court season, Almagro went berserk in the clay season, going on a thirteen match killing spree.
His impressive run of form led him clinched titles at the Brazil Open (slew Alexandr Dolgopolov in the final) and the Copa Telmex (battled past Juan Ignacio Chela in the title-round) and made a final showdown at the Abierto Mexicano Telcel (lost to the Spanish
number two David Ferrer).
His form dipped slightly afterwards but the Spaniard raised his game again at the Barcelona ATP event, where he made a semi-final berth. However, Almagro made it up in the following week in Nice to triumph his third year-to-date title, overpowering Romanian
Victor Hanescu in the final round. The Spaniard failed to impress at the French Open, second of the four Grand Slams held on the clay courts and lost to the Polish qualifier Lukasz Kubot in the opening round.
The high flying Spaniard failed to display his skills on the grass season as well but re-gained his momentum at the Bastad ATP in July where he made another final four showing. Next week, the Spaniard cruised at the Hamburg ATP event but lost to French Gilles
Simon in his fifth final of the season.
Almagro’s form dipped steeply in the end of the season and he fell to a three match losing streak. However, the Spaniard’s exceptional season saw him cracking in the Top-10 and he entered the new season with conviction.
“Almagro was the hot-headed, hard-hitting bad boy, and Nadal was the hard-headed, hot-hitting little gentleman,” said Toni Nadal, uncle and coach of the world number two, Rafael Nadal. “He has one of the best backhands in the world,” he added.
“Many people think he can be in the Top 5,” says Antonio Martinez, “because he has two big weapons with his ground strokes and his serve – especially the second serve, which is great. But that backhand, that is special.”
Focusing on his backhands and massive ground strokes, the Spaniard can easily surpass anyone and reach far at the Melbourne Grand Slam 2012. Although his ten singles titles are all on his favoured clay surface, Almagro is improving his game play on other
surfaces. He eased past lower ranked players easily this year but was ousted by seeded players from the last four at the Aircel Chennai Open and the final eight at the Heineken Open. However, the Spaniard needs to step up his game when facing a top-25 player.
He fell to the fourth seed and the eventual champion, Milos Raonic, in Chennai and exited by the eighth seed, Philipp Kohlschreiber, in Auckland.
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