It's not only the American men that have been losing from the men's singles draw at Roland Garros. Check on how 3 of the Top10 have lost (in uppercase) as of Wed May-30, with half the 2nd Rd matches still to be played. I haven't seen any matches besides highlights, but still the results so far are surprising with the extent of the upsets. Note that for the Clay Rank, I totalled the points earned during 2007 clay court tournaments, with 51+ meaning be outside of the Clay Top50.
Player Rank Clay Rank
Federer 1 2
Nadal 2 1
RODDICK 3 51+
Davydenko 4 16
GONZALEZ 5 9
Djokovic 6 11
Ljubicic 7 47
BLAKE 8 32
Robredo 9 26
It's to be expected that some of the overall Top10 can't play well on clay (especially American players). However, I was very surprised to see 4 of the Top10 clay guys lose.
Player Rank Clay Rank
Nadal 2 1
Federer 1 2
Ferrero 20 3
CHELA 21 4
ALMAGRO 38 5
Monaco 35 6
BERDYCH 12 7
Canas 22 8
GONZALEZ 5 9
Moya 26 10
What happened to Gonzo? I haven't seen his matches since the Aus Open in Jan 07, but he was playing incredibly there, with a sick winners-to-unforced error ratio. It really looked like Gonzo was the "defacto #2" at the time, better than everyone except Fed. Gonzo has always been good on all surfaces also, including clay.
I'm also shocked to see Almagro lose, the 22 yr old Spanish kid that has been playing great on clay. I thought if Fed & Rafa both somehow lose, Almagro is likely as anyone else to win. RG has a history of young clay players stepping up & winning. I'm suprised to see Almagro lose to Llodra in 5 sets, a serve & volley French player who is actually better at doubles.
I'm not surprised to see Monfils (picture) beat Chela. Monfils, like Safin & Gasquet, is the type of player who can beat or lose to anyone on any given day.
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