The clay court tennis season

The clay court tennis season is with us again, and for gamblers on tennis the perrenial question remains, can anyone beat Rafael Nadal on his favourite tennis surface. The ATP Barcelona Open is currently in progress and Nadal has so far looked invincible and back to his best form. This follows his victory in last week’s Monte Carlo Open, and reinforces his status as the world’s top tennis player. Once again Roger Federer must be considered by tennis gamblers to be the most likely challenger, although Novak Djokovic has had an exceptional start to the 2011 ATP tennis season, with a win in the Australian Open in January, followed by three more wins on hard courts in Dubai and America. Gamblers on tennis will be keen to see if Djokovic can continue this fine run of form when he takes to the clay courts for the first time in the 2011 tennis season in his home tournament in Serbia next week. The clay court tennis season culminates in the French Open tennis tournament, the second major of the season, at Roland Garros in Paris on the 22^nd May. Rafael Nadal has won five of the last six French open tennis championships, beaten only in 2009 when the champion was Roger Federer, who beat Robin Soderling in the final. Soderling also contested the final in 2010 and is currently ranked number 5 in the world, and many gamblers on tennis would argue that Soderling is the most likely outsider to topple Nadal on the clay courts in Paris. Other contenders for tennis gamblers to consider include David Ferrer, another clay court specialist and currently ranked number 6 in the world, and of course Andy Murray who has not had the best of starts to the 2011 tennis season, but is still ranked number 4 and is always capable of beating the best tennis players in the world. Murray’s poor form will pass and what better place to re-establish his position in world tennis than the French Open.