Americans Open As Winners On European Claycourts

Americans Open As Winners On European Claycourts
By Ken Miller, Lawn Tennis Correspondent, Posted: Tuesday, May 6, 2008 10:50am CST USA

Americans Open As Winners On European Claycourts, Andy Roddick,
Serena Williams

Andy Roddick and Serena Williams of the USA
Photos by Felice Calabro/AP, Miguel Villagran/AP

ROME/BERLIN (lawntennismag.com) - The European claycourt tournaments are normally dominated by European players in part because the Europeans grow up playing and practicing more on clay while Americans focus mostly on hardcourts.

No American has won the French Open, the largest clay court tournament, since 2002 when Serena Williams took her lone French Open title. Andre Agassi in 1999 was the last American male to win.

"I'm healthy. I'm focused. Tennis is my priority," Williams said. "Everything is just coming together."

Today two of America's best French Open hopes took to the claycourts and came up winners as Andy Roddick defeated Mardy Fish also of the USA 6-1, 6-4 in the second round of the Internazionali BNL d'Italia at Rome; while Serena Williams topped Francesca Schiavone of Italy 6-2, 6-3 in the second round of the Qatar Telecom German Open.

Roddick this week was handed a difficult draw as he could face 4th seeded Nikolay Davydenko of Russia in the quarterfinals and 2nd seeded Rafael Nadal of Spain in the semifinals. Nadal holds a 103-1 claycourt record since 2005.

After drawing world number one Justine Henin of Belgium in three grand slam quarterfinals last year, Williams has repeated the feat at Berlin this week as she could face Henin again in the quarterfinals. Henin has won the French Open the last three years. Should Williams advance to the semifinals, she could then meet European and third seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia or another European, the 12th seeded Nicole Vaidisova of the Czech Republic.

After winning her 16th straight match this year, Williams liked her chances even on the clay courts.

"I'm healthy. I'm focused. Tennis is my priority," Williams said. "Everything is just coming together."